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A Jamtmimt Picture. The Spanish Dancer. 

POLA NEGRI AS THE SPANISH DANCER. 



THE 

SPANISH DANCER 

Being a translation from the original French 
by Henry L. Williams of 

DON CAESAR DE BAZAN 

BY 

VICTOR HUGO 

As dramatically told in the stage play 
by Adolph D'Ennery and P. S. P. Dumanoir 

WITH A FOREWORD BY 

GLENDON ALLVINE 
POLA NEGRI EDITION 

ILLUSTRATED WITH SCENES P^ROM 
THE PARAMOUNT PICTURE 




GROSSET & DUNLAP 

PUBLISHERS NEW YORK 

Made in the United States of Amelica 






Copyright, 1901 
By street & SMITH 




f/ 



- f'-"/^' f / 



FOREWORD 

Some Remarks About Novels That Become 
Motion Pictures 



By Glendon AUvine 

The story-teller nowadays does not necessarily write 
%vith one eye on the screen, but, on the other hand, he 
cannot shut out from his mind's eye all images of his 
characters as the camera might reveal them. A very few 
creative authors still refuse to recognize the films as a 
new medium of expression. 

Some authors to-day are actually writing in front 
of the camera — devising their plots and characterizations 
right in the moving picture studio. Most of them, how- 
ever, are doing their creative writing with only slight con- 
cessions to the technical demands of motion pictures. 

Homer Croy insists that he wrote "West of the Water 
^ower" with no thought whatever that it might make 
good screen material. When Jesse L. Lasky tried to 
buy the picture rights of the novel of small town life the 
author insisted there was no picture in his story — a judg- 
ment he revised some months later when he saw the pic- 
ture in the making at the Paramount studio on Long 
Island. 

"The Covered Wagon" came from the pen of the late 
Emerson Hough without any thought, on the author's 



U Foreword 

part, of its picture possibilities. Mr. Hough had had 
one unfortunate experience with a lesser producer who 
filmed one of his earlier stories. And as a result he was 
"off" all picture producers. Yet James Cruze took this 
novel of the winning of the West and gave it an epic 
sweep which will make this story live forever, giving 
the world a better understanding of the hardy pioneers 
who pushed over the Oregon trail to establish a new; 
empire of the Pacific Coast. Mr. Hough lived to see 
his story hailed as one of the great pictures of a decade, 
and died with a kindlier feeling toward film folk. This 
one picture revived the interest in all of Mr, Hough's 
writings and caused "The Covered Wagon" to leap again 
into the six best seller class of novels. 

In his experience with the films Mr. Hough reached 
the depths of despair and the heights of triumph. Few 
other authors have run such a gamut from failure to 
success in the screening of their stories. Some authors 
have only kind words for the movies ; others are loud 
in their denunciation. Their readers likewise go to ex- 
tremes in their attitude toward film versions of books. 
Readers of popular fiction sometimes complain that 
their entertaining novels have been ruined by the people 
who make motion pictures. No sooner do I finish reading a 
novel that gives me a definite idea of intensely human 
characters I have visualized from the author's words than, 
along comes a movie director and mangles the pictures I 
have built up in my own mind. He seems to have no 
respect whatever for the image my mind has devised and 
the chances are that his ideas do not coincide with the 
mental images worked out by any of the many thousands 
who have read the novel. 

And yet how do I know that I am completely right PI 
'perhaps he does have a right to his own ideas even as 1 1 



Foreword iii 

have a right to mine and there may possibly be good and 
sufficient reasons why a story comes through the picture 
mill in a form so different from the story I got from the 
printed page. 

My contempt for the movies was second to none when 
I emerged from college weighted down by two degrees. 
[VVhat puerile, childish efforts these movies were! What 
silly, stupid things the picture people perpetrated ! 

Yet such was my curiosity about the mysterious ways 
of the makers of photoplays that I set about to learn, as 
best I could, how they got that way. A motion picture 
has so many ingredients that the process of devising 
film entertainment is most complex. It may not be in- 
appropriate to discuss here some of the problems in- 
yolved. Perhaps some reader whose feelings have been 
outraged may at least understand some of the mental 
processes that went into the translation of a novel into a 
film. 

Nobody ever wrote a motion picture in the sense that 
Booth Tarkington, for instance, writes a novel. Even 
Mr. Tarkington, perhaps the foremost of living American 
novelists, feels his own inadequacy in reconstructing his 
story as a stage play and usually calls in Harry Leon 
iWilson to help him adapt it to the requirements of the 
theatre. Mr. Tarkington, in telling his story for the 
ecreen, likewise requires assistance from specialists in 
that medium, whose work is often evident on the screen. 
If there be less of Tarkington at least there is more of a 
photoplay. 

A very few novelists, notably Rex Beach and Rupert 
Hughes, who have taken the pains to study the com- 
plexities of a motion picture production, have achieved 
considerable success in telling their stories in screen 
form. Yet either of these creators of fiction feels that a 



iv Foreword 

printed book bearing his own name carries over more of 
his personality than a motion picture, written, directed, 
supervised and edited by the author. There are actors 
and cameramen and bankers and audiences to be con- 
sidered, and what they do to a story is often the despair 
of authors with paternal regard for a brainchild. 

Even the title is often lost in the shuffle from the 
printed page to celluloid. Consider, for instance, Bar- 
rie's "The Admirable Crichton." That story, to the de- 
spair of the followers of the whimsical Scot, emerged 
on the screen as "Male and Female." That was many 
years ago but people still cite it to illustrate the stupidity, 
not to mention the cupidity, of picture producers. "Male 
and Female" is admittedly a box-office title, but the Bible 
is full of box-office titles. And who shall say that the 
Bible is not as good a source as Barrie from which to 
lift the quotation "Male and Female created He them." 
You can quote scripture even to sell a motion picture. 

There is just one reason why "The Admirable Crichton'* 
was a bad title for a film and that is that very few people, 
even now, are quite sure of how to pronounce Crichton, 
Let us imagine a young man taking his girl to the movies. 
On one side of Main Street the electric lights invite him 
to view "The Admirable Crichton" and on the opposite 
side the bulbs blaze out the admonition "Don't Tell 
Everything." Now he doesn't want to admit to the girl, 
who is perhaps smarter than himself, his hesitation about 
pronouncing the title of the one picture and so he avoids 
embarrassment by suggesting they go across the street 
to see "Don't Tell Everything." Just multiply that one 
incident by 100,000 — ^}^ou multiply almost everything by 
that number in the movies — and you can appreciate that 
the earnings of "Male and Female" might have been very 
considerably less if handicapped in America by the name. 



Foreword 88 

which Barrie, in far-off Scotland, tacked on to his ex- 
cellent narrative. 

I am by no means contending that picture titles are 
always legitimate or in good taste, but in considering 
successful titles let us remember that the outstanding 
music success of a decade was "Yes, We Have No 
Bananas." 

Avoiding a discussion as to whether or not that title 
means anything, at least we are reasonably safe in as- 
suming that to an American audience "Don Caesar de 
Bazan" means nothing. Don suggests a Spanish person 
although Caesar, I believe, was a Roman; and Bazan 
sounds like a trade name some advertising man might 
devise for a depilatory. In my estimation, the Famous 
players-Lasky Corporation displayed excellent judgment 
in assigning to this story, for American consumption, the 
simple yet dignified title, "The Spanish Dancer." 

That title, I learned, was chosen from many sug- 
gested in New York while the film was in production in 
California. And throughout the months the studio peo- 
ple were laboriously grinding out the 387 scenes that 
blend into the nine reels of this celluloid entertainment, 
the advertising and publicity men were attempting to 
establish in the public mind that title, "The Spanish 
Dancer." On seeing "The Spanish Dancer" on the screen 
it is interesting to speculate how many minds have exerted 
their influence on the story that Victor Hugo imagined in 
France almost a hundred years ago. 

It happened that an actor, Lemaitre by name, had set 
his heart upon playing the part of Don Caesar de Bazan, 
a minor character in Hugo's great dramatic poem "Ruy 
Bias." Victor Hugo had agreed to expand the role of 
Don Cssar so as to make it the starring part in a stage 
play suitable for the talents of M. Lemaitre, but Hugo 



vi Foreword 

had incurred the displeasure of both the monarchists and 
imperialists and so everything he had written or intended 
to write was banned. 

Enter Adolphe D'Ennery and P. S. P. Dumanoir, who 
adapted the story to the needs of the Parisian stage. Both 
were dramatists of repute and D'Ennery 's fame subse- 
quently reached America as the author of that venerable 
opus known wherever stock is played, "The Two 
Orphans." 

Enter now two other dramatic craftsmen, June Mathis 
and Beulah Marie Dix, who adapted the story to the 
screen and the needs of Pola Negri. For as Victor Hugo 
wrote the stage play to fit Lemaitre, who played Don 
Cassar, so June Mathis and Beulah Marie Dix wrote their 
screen story to put the emphasis on Pola Negri, who is 
the central figure ir the Paramount picture. 

Miss Mathis will be remembered as the author of the 
continuity of "Blood and Sand," which brought Rodolph 
Valentino to the peak of his popularity. In their col- 
laboration on "The Spanish Dancer" they have developed 
a script which retells Victor Hugo's story in the most 
vivid fashion possible. 

Their script so pleased Jesse L. Lasky, on whom rests 
the responsibility for the selection and production of 
Paramount pictures, that he assigned it to Herbert Brenon, 
who had previously directed many film successes. Mr. 
Brenon, realizing that neither he nor any living person 
had any first-hand information about the Spain of three 
centuries ago, began doing research work in the libraries 
of Southern California and Northern Mexico, but since 
he could not find there all the authentic historical data 
needed for the telling of his screen story, he crossed the 
continent to the Metropolitan Museum of Art where a 
week's work netted him excellent results. Finding that ' 



Foreword !vi| 

other data were available at the Smithsonian Institute at 
Washington, he went to the capital for further research 
work. Photographs were obtained from old prints which 
served as the basis for the elaborate backgrounds, native 
customs were studied and blended into the plans for the 
picture, with the result that when Director Brenon actually 
began the shooting of his first scene in the picture he was 
thoroughly steeped in the atmosphere of Spain of the 
seventeenth century. 

To play the part of Don Caesar de Bazan, Mr. Brenon 
selected a popular actor of Spanish parentage, Antonio 
•Moreno. This was an almost inevitable selection since 
Mr. Moreno has many of the ingratiating personal quali- 
ties that Victor Hugo attributed to Don Csesar. For the 
role of that old reprobate, King Philip IV, the director 
chose Wallace Beery, a competent actor whose villainy 
on the screen is well known to theater-goers. Kathlyti 
Williams was assigned the part of Queen Isabel. Gareth 
Hughes, always good in juvenile parts, was chosen for 
Lazarillo. Adolphe Menjou, a 100% villain, was se- 
lected to create Don Salluste. For the part of the Mar- 
quis de Rotundo Mr. Brenon selected Edward Kipling; 
for the Cardinal's Ambassador, Charles A. Stevenson; 
for Diego, Robert Brower; for Dib he chose Robert 
Agnew. The part of Don Balthazzar went to a girl. 
Dawn O'Day. 

Meanwhile designers and architects had adapted from 
the many Spanish prints dug out of the museums and 
libraries a whole village which was built in the mountains 
of Southern California. Nowadays carpenters and plas- 
terers and masons get big wages, and the labor costs in 
building a village are great, even though the village be 
an uninhabitable one for motion picture purposes. A 
studio statistician has figured out that these reproduction$ 



yiii Foreword 

of old Spanish castles actually cost more than did the 
original castles in Spain from which the sets were 
modeled. Labor back in seventeenth century Spain was 
yery cheap. Then you could build a castle in Spain al- 
most as cheaply as you can dream about one now. 

An interesting photograph is included in this book which 
shows, better than any words can describe, the size and 
beauty of the great old Spanish buildings grouped about 
the Catholic church. The hundreds of extra people who 
appear in this big scene are but specks qn the picture com- 
pared with the huge sets built only to be photographed. 
In the foreground are seen the tents in which the actors 
lived while on location far from Los Angeles. 

Out on this location most of the scenes for the picture 
were filmed, for it is essentially an outdoors story. But 
the elaborate garden fete in which four hundred ballet 
dancers appear was rehearsed and photographed in the 
famous Busch gardens in Pasadena. The colorful gypsy 
encampment was established on the Lasky ranch near 
Hollywood. 

When most of the outdoor scenes had been photo- 
graphed Director Brenon retired to the huge stages of the 
Lasky studios in Hollywood where the interior scenes of 
the picture were photographed. Finally, after many 
months of activity, the actual camera work had been com- 
pleted. There remained then the complicated and tre- 
mendously important work of cutting, titling and as- 
sembling the film for one finished print. Out of about 
75,000 feet of film which had been exposed and de- 
veloped it was possible to use only about 9,000 feet, or 
nine reels. 

Each of the 387 scenes in the photoplay, it must be 
understood, were photographed several times and some- 



Foreword ix 

times as many as a dozen times to get the best emotional 
effects properly lighted. 

On Hector Turnbull, author of "The Cheat," Miss 
Negri's previous picture, rested the responsibility of edit- 
ing the seventy-five reels of film down to nine reels. 
After several v/eeks of work he got it down to 8,400 feet. 

Then, for the first time, the director saw the net results 
of his months of work, and he was happy to learn that 
people with a viewpoint more detached than his consid- 
ered it good. Some rate it Mr. Brenon's greatest achieve- 
ment. Almost every one ranks it as Pola Negri's best 
picture since "Passion" and the finest of her American 
work. 

Maritana lives again, reincarnated in another generation 
by means of a new toy which Victor Hugo, with all his 
creative imagination, could not foresee. 

Glendon Allvine. 



FR,Eir'^OE- 



An entertaining little tale is attached to the spring- 
ing into life of that charmingly unique character, Don 
Caesar de Bazan. 

About 1830, all art in Paris — literary and theatrical-^ 
became involved in the revolution concurrent with the 
political one. Dramatic authors claimed rights which 
HO former playwrights, pets of princes and adulatory 
slaves of kings and wealth, had dreamt of. 

More terrifying still, these young writers dro'pped 
threadbare subjects ridiculing absurdities of peasant, 
trader and retired bankers, and exposed aristocratic 
vices and evil passions. Laying outrageous hands on 
the royal robes, they dragged the monarchs into stage- 
light and showed what "a poor forked radish" is your 
Peter, Charles or Louis "the Great." 

Victor Hugo, by tearing ofi masks and cloaks and 
dissipating perfumes and vapors, incurred hostility of 
rulers and their hangers-on, particularly by his "Ruy 
Bias." In this powerful drama, a queen of Spain is 
compelled to yield the tribute of admiration to a con- 
summate statesman, fervent patriot, astute pleader and 
intrepid war-maker, although he was basely born and, 
before he donned court suits, wore the footman's liv- 
ery. 

At once, Hugo had his revenge for the suppression', 
since "Ruy," excluded from Paris, triumphantly madej 



6 Preface. 

the tour of Europe, being saluted with music in the 
Land of Song. Italy made him an operatic hero — her 
crowning triumph. 

Before it was brought out, it had won its pla'ce. This 
was at thoise readings customary at the time. After the 
friends heard and praised, they forced the managers to 
sue for it. Such was the enkindled desire that th^ 
French Theatre, the chief, clamored for it. 

At the first reading of "Ruy Bias," to the actors, the 
"old sticks" eyed each other in dismay; never could 
they hope to represent this whirlwind in a doublet, this 
sirocco under the velvet cap, this virile young spirit who, 
spurning his lackey's coat as the butterfly rejects the 
cocoon, assumed the imperial mantle and held his head 
with peers and senators. Upon which the author, smil- 
ing in his sleeve, relieved them of anxiety, and filled 
them with spite, by saying that he had found the ideal, 
in "the Great Frederick!" 

All laughed, for this actor of the petty theatres, was 
the unknown — Lemaitre ("the master," prophetic 
name!), but the appreciative knew him well. He had, 
like Kean, played every role from king to harlequin ; 
but poverty was keeping him ddwn; all his courage was 
needed to hold a grim face before those sultans of the 
stage who frowned at "M. Hugo's foundling out of the 
popular side-show." He sat like Marius brooding over 
ruins, for his failure would be death to his long-nour- 
ished ambition. 

Readers of "Ruy Bias" remember the plot: in the first 
act, one is startled and hesitates to admire, though in- 
evitably loving a rakish figure, a Spanish Mercutio, a 
young and slender Falstaff, care-free, lively, generous, 
fearless, but honorable to his sword's point. 

Don Ciesar de Bazan, for this is that immortal hi- 



Preface. 7 

dalgiQ, who, stepping out of Lope de Vega, appears again 
only at the last scene. 

Lemaitre, absorbed from the inrush of this devil-may- 
care, courtly ragamuffin, was thoughtful throughout the 
rest, and only brightened as Caesar, the irrepressible, 
shot up with all his glamour at the last. 

It was the modesty of his rank. Afflicted by this 
gloom, the author said with feeling: 

"Do yo'U not approve?" The others had split their 
gloves. "Is not the part good enough for you? I am 
grieved, for I thought often of you while writing 'Ruy.' " 

" 'Ruy Bias ?' you thought of giving me, 'Ruy' — the 
leading part; on in every scene! I — 'play 'Ruy?' Oh, 
.Victor, my friend, for 'Ruy' I will do anything for its 
creator!" Then pausing, as when a favorite dish is 
borne away, although the successor is a daintier still, he 
longingly said: "But I should have been satisfied to 
play that captivating Don Caesar!" 

Unhappily for his prospects, the censor said that the 
Royal House was interlocked with Spain; that the vague 
queen, enamored of a footman, must be the king's blood- 
relative. "Ruy Bias" was "strangled in an hour." 

Lemaitre was in despair; must he leave town to "star" 
in the forbidden piece? 

Two authors came to his aid. It was when Hugo, by 
his republicanism, won the hate of both monarchists and 
imperialists. His works were doubly banned. 

The authors were Dumanoir and Dennery. The first 
once monopolized our stage, but his works were given 
under the translators' names. Dennery wrote the "Two 
Orphans;" no pale copyist has kept his name off the bills. 
Boucicault called him "the foremost of playwrigfhts;" no 
more can be said. 

They talked with Lemaitre thus: 

"Hugo is outlawed, but he winks at us making for youl 



8 Preface. 

a three-act drama of his 'Don Caesar de Bazan.' Thus, 
he and you will be again the popular idol!" 

Eclipsed in the tragedy, Don Csesar reappeared more 
vividly than ever. In the original, genius had shot out 
two or three gleams; here skilled intellect burned stead- 
ily, 'but as brightly. 

The longer-lived hero — promoted to eternity, in fact — 
strode amid the grotesque imagery and lurid amosphere 
of "Old Madrid," with the fullness of action of "Gil 
Bias," the rich colors of Velasquez, the variety of Cer- 
vantes, and the polished wit of a good-humored, yet caus- 
tic, Paul-Louis Courier. 

"There is always something great, pleasing or curious 
in a popular attraction," and Don Caesar proves himself 
all three. 

To us "the Cid" is nothing, and this Csesar is "the 
most famous of Castilians." 

In this creation, Hugo paid a debt to humanity in 
sterling metal, impressed with poetry, genius and origin- 
ality. H. L. W. 



DON C^SAR DE BAZAN. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE DANCING GIRL. 

Everybody knows that the Escurial, royal palace of 
Spain, is modeled to remind the architectural student of 
the gridiron on which St. Lawrence was carbonized. 

But it is not as widely known that it served as the 
bed (to many a royal tenant) through sleepless nights 
and melancholy days. 

Perhaps as miserable as any under that golden sorrow, 
the crown of the monarch of the Indies and still wealthy 
Spain, was the consort of King Charles the Second, 

"Celestial choirs" from the no'ted convents and chap- 
els, the court buffoon, the merrymakers who had cheered 
multitudes on the trestles of the itinerant stages, all had 
failed to cheer the poor, declining queen. 

As a last resort, a stage had been erected in the 
outer yard, facing her suite windows, on which were 
given entertainments by traveling mountebanks. At 
night, fireworks from Italy, home of such brief glitter, 
lit up the gloomy gardens. 

But nothing dispelled her tedium. 

"In order to distract her," said the master of cere- 
monies, "we shall be driven distracted," 

At last, at their wits' end, they descended to the low- 



JO The Dancing Girl. 

est form of popular recreation, the outcast "antics," 
jokers and ribalds of the byways. 

On the balcony, protected from the sun by awnings 
trimmed with silk fringe and heavy with bullion tassels 
and cords, the royal dame, amid her ladies and other 
attendants, deigned to look down over the fans at the 
latest company raked together no longer by the master 
of the revels, but the lieutenant-royal of police. 

This time, Don Jose de Santarem, the "civil" in- 
quisitor, as he was playfully entitled, S'mihd compla- 
cently as his "troupe" made their profound bows on the 
platform. The queen had actually smiled at the pre- 
posterous attire and ell-wide grimaces of the merry 
Andrew. 

The queen's saddening features were much improved 
by this passing alleviation of her growing dullness. She 
w^as never beautiful, but before she 'became thin under 
the Spanish sun, she had been comely and prepossess- 
ing. Only one Spanish trait was hers, the immoderate 
munching' of chocolate, which began to spoil her teeth. 

In laughing at the jester, she forgot her habit of keep- 
ing her lips closed to hide her teeth. 

"You have done it," whispered the royal physician to 
the chief of royal police, half-enviously. "This is as! 
well as can be! If this band of marauders and thieves 
have more such farces in their quiver, faith! your excel- 
lency will turn her mourning into blitheness, and make 
tl'.c ailment I treated her for so vainly, into a school- 
girl's malady!" 

"It will do, doctor!" replied Don Jose. "These 
Egyptian clowns are death to all rigorists and preci- 
sians ! Ah, if you wlio speak to the crowned ones in a 
corner, could but tell what worm bit the fruit — 'what 
weight has pulled our lady down " 

"Huim! you will not believe what all your spies musf 



The Dancinsf Girl. ii 



'& 



have failed to report, since you have an empty budgfeti 
It is a rare complaint among royal ladies, espoused in 
the cradle to the future mate: she adores her husband!" 

"It is a miracle !" sneered the criminal-lieutenant. 

"When he is by, she cannot take her eyes off him!" 

**That has been noted!" 

"If he smiles upon her, she can be gay all the dayl" 

"So he has ceased to smile? He has flown off tha 
hinges?" 

"This palace game of omhre ought to be known to 
your lordship," returned Dr. Rhubarba. "I can on\f. 
say that I felicitate you, for your gypsy tomfools hav« 
•worked more heal than my dose's of Saracen's woun^d- 
wort " 

"Yes, goldenrod does not cure the heartache!" 

All eyes were fixed upon the man who had caused the 
drooping lady to cheer up. 

Don Jose had not a friend among them. When ho 
first presented himself at court, he was lofty and dis- 
tant, having come of the Santarem sto'ck which had 
coined money while other nobles fought in the pro- 
tracted wars of the empire. Now, proud men please 
neither princes nor pages. At the outset, placed among- 
the mere "cloak forms," soon it was observed that he 
ro'se by little without ever being put down a step. 

"He has the slow pace by which steeps are climbed," 
said the old courtiers. 

Then it was perceived that his red hair was darkened 
by using the lead comb and that his yellow complex- 
ion assumed plumpness and color, as he furnished his 
table more lavishly and entertained. 

He who had been a "funeral mute" in the olden ap- 
parel of the ascetic Charles V., black, dulled lace, few 
jewels, short feathers, unstretched collars, began to fol- 
low the latest French fashions. 



12 The Dancing Girl. 

The inconspicuous manikin became a popinjay. 

Still, on being raised to the degree of the king's police 
lieutenant, he relapsed into the somber costume becom- 
ing the dread office. But still he paraded his gold chain 
of office, his jeweled badges of orders, his incrusted 
swordhilt of some knightly companionship, and his 
rings — signet and ornamental. 

Delighted inwardly at his success, he smiled in his 
short, brown beard, and muttered. 

"Now, Momus has had his triumph — let us see hoiw 
music and dancing will move the forlorn woman!" 

On the stage, at the back of which sat the musicians 
and comrades of the performers, to encourage them, in 
the Eastern mode, by throwing out praise in their own 
language, the music of "pig's-head" keyed-instruments, 
lutes, cymbals and African-stringed drums, abruptly 
changed from the lively strains. To the decorous, meas- 
ured notes of a slow march, in walked, rather than 
danced, the "stars" of the wandering compar. . 

Men and women, all young, all good-looking in their 
way, serpentine in grace, showing teeth too sharp and 
white, eyes too black and flashing, feet and hands too 
effeminate, the gypsies were so choice that they seemed 
living models of the Bacchus and Antinoiis which the 
ancients liked to cast in golden bronze. 

So beautiful and fascinating were they that courtiers 
crossed themselves and some uttered "Get thee back, 
Satan!" 

The queen, her mood changing with the music, be- 
came enrapt. She leaned her fan on the balustrade, 
covered with a magnificent brocade, and her chin on her 
jeweled fan-handle. She fixed her eyes on the new set of 
performers. 

They sang in chorus one of the Arabian poem-fablesi 



The Dancing Girl. 13 

lingering in Spain after the Moors were driven out. 
This was to prepare for the dance to follow. 

Discreetly the other actors withdrew to the sides of 
the stage, where they squatted down and kept reciting 
the melodious verses. 

The two dancers were superb. 

The male, wearing a half-mask of black felt, which 
s'howed up his floured face and his mustache smoth- 
ered with the farina, presented a statuelike effect. His 
dress was tawdry and gaudy, but worn with the freedom 
and even the display of a nobleman at a coronation. 

He bore 'himself with perfect fearlessness, as if to be 
tinder royal eyes were an everyday experience. 

He was taller than the gypsies, better built at the shoul- 
ders, and his hands and feet were in proportion to his 
height. He w^ore an old long sword, flapping on his 
calves, but he must have been more used to its "^rriaga 
than even to the lute, with which he tinkled t ic time to 
their step, for it did not once embarrass him. 

But with all his upright and pliant form, his alacrity; 
and strict time-keeping, he served but as a foil to his 
partner. 

She was already famed, for a cry of "Maritana!" had 
hailed her appearance on the boards from the crowd of 
palace servants and populace allowed to congregate in 
the yard before the platform. 

Maritana was not swarthy, but it was difficult to judge 
her natural complexion. Although she was not overlaid 
with flour, as in her companion's case, she was daubed 
with rouge, her lips were made thick, and the upper one 
almost painted up to her nose, while immense earrings 
and a jeweled comb thrust through her dull hair added a 
barbaric accent, which marred her natural beauty. 

Nevertheless, this harmonized with the surrounding; 
Zingari, and assorted also with her wanton dance. 



14 The Dancing Girl. 

Without understanding the story chanted, one might 
guess that the two were depicting in dumb show the 
chase of a gazelle by a lion on the plain. There were 
bounds and flights, escapes and captures, which kept the 
spectator in turmoil. 

With excellent art, just when the fugitive, exhausted 
by such desperate efforts to avoid her fate, sank on one 
knee at the side, and the captor's arms enwreathed her 
head, which had dislodged the abundant tresses from the 
coils and the comb, she became human. She lifted her 
glorious blue eyes, enlarged by the fever of action, and 
as if disdaining to sue to this human lion, she appealed to 
some divinity — one which knew what love was and would 
intervene on her behalf. 

Her ruddy lips opened and there was exhibited such 
a burst of purity, crystalline intonation and fervency of 
feeling that her own companions seemed spellbound. 

The queen was no mean artiste in r usic. Her 
teacher was a professor from the Veronese Academy of 
Music, and she reveled in emotional music. 

It was not astonishing, therefore, that all heard her 
sigh with satisfaction. She rose without the aid of her 
maids, and, leaning over the gilded and cushioned rail^ 
and detaching a heavy bracelet from her arm, let it drop 
with a vehement motion. 

At this golden bait, all the wanderers evinced their 
rapacity. A hundred hands were held up. But the 
male dancer, as he had displayed agility in his steps, was 
to be in the second place to no man now. Like light- 
ning, he had unsheathed his long sword, and, leaping up 
at the same time, he thrust the blade so dexterously at 
the gleaming, falling object that it entered the circle and 
it glided down to his wrist. 

A cheer greeted this clever rapier trick. Almost aH 
the men were judges of sword-handling. 



The Dancing Girl. 15 

His bound had carried him to the stage edge, but, 
poising himself as he ahghted in an elegant pose, he 
whirled round, bowing at the time to the donor, and, re 
versing his blade so that the golden ring ran down, 'he, 
as deftly as in catching it, let it slip off upon the hand 
of his partner, just as a hoop is caught in the game of 
"grace." 

]\Iaritana, all blushes through her rouge, her eyes like 
unquenchable stars, made an elaborate courtesy to the 
benefactress, and was about to make a triumphant exit 
when a sign from the queen stopped her short. 

Almost instantly a chamiberlain, with a smiling mien, 
went over to the stage, and sweetly said: 

"By favor of the queen, you are to have an audience of 
her majesty!" 

Her redness fading, her feet no longer nimble, the 
dancing girl, with slower and slower step, followed th6 
official as he conducted her within doors. 

All the spectators, gentle and simple, held their breath 
and forebore comment even in whispers. 

"Oh, my brothers by adoption," said the gypsy's part- 
ner to the men, in trepidation, "fear not ! Alaritana's 
honey in the mouth will save her back from the lash! 
She is born to stand in the smile of Heaven!" 

Don Jose, however proud, had deliberately throwTi 
himself in the way. 

"It is a blessed morning, Maritana!" said he, mean- 
ingly. 

She stared at him, her sight beginning to clear as she 
believed that she was not to meet the foil after the true 
■metal ; she was too bewildered to recognize the speaker 
or distinguish him, but she blurted out: 

"As many to you, my lord !" 

Then her eyes became downcast. 

The queen had faced around on the balcony as she was 



l6 The Dancing Girl. 

broug-ht. She had enframed herself in the long window. 
She looked imposing in her robe, her coronetlike comb 
and her jewels. The immense Hall of Battles, through 
which the poor dancer was led, was thronged with great 
lords and great ladies. Not one but wore a historic name 
and historic gems. 

Accustomed to the open air, the perfume almost made 
the gypsy swoon. But luckily, her weakness was as- 
cribed to timidity and became a pariah's approach to a 
monarch. 

"Now, Heaven help me !" murmured she, bowing low. 

The queen admired this humility and bashfulness in one 
whom at a distance she had presumed to be of the usual 
brazen herd. 

Looking at her so near and with womanly eyes, she 
perceived what exquisite beauty was under this paltry, 
gaudy mask ; she saw the down of virgin modesty under 
the red pamt ; she saw in those eyes trained to look boldly 
into the tormentor's visage the shrinking of the virtuous 
and proud, though reduced out of their sphere. 

"Your name, child?" said she, softening her voice. 

"Maritana." 

"But the rest?" 

"There is no rest to us, madam! simply Maritana." 

"Do you belong to Spain — to Madrid?" 

"The Gitana belongs nowhere — she is a creature not of 
the earth, but of the air 1" 

"It is true that you dance as though you were fed upon 
it ! and you sing like the bird from the heavens, which 
reposes never on the sordid ground, but sleeps poised in 
midair !" 

"I am likel}'- to take my last repose there!" returned 
Maritana, wittingly, but without sarcasm, as if her fate 
was ruled from birth. 

"You! Oh, fie! Shame to the hand Which would 



The Dancing Girl. 17 

lead you to that halter. Look ! here is a rope alone fitted 
for your neck." 

Slowly unwinding from her own shoulders one of those 
prodigious ropes of pearls which were in the treasuries of 
Spain and Portugal at that period, she gravely put it 
upon the neck of her protegee, who bent low at the price- 
less present, altogether eclipsing the bracelet. 

"Oh, your majesty !" she faltered. 

Her real color came and made the rouge pale. 

"Look !" cried the queen to her court painter, "is not 
this scene counterpart of that when the navigator Colum- 
bus returned from the Indies and presented the Indian 
princess to the court of Queen Isabel? But that this 
goodly heathen has blue eyes, and I do not believe her 
hair is as ebonlike as it seems, she would resemble the 
dusky belle-savage !" 

Maritana, as if the pearls weighed her down, suffered a 
'hundred pangs in ieeling that the persons viewed her as 
a pagan. 

"Hear ye, all !" cried her patroness, "my lords of the 
State and the Church ! I adopt this waif and will strive to 
make 'her enter the pale. Maritana, remember that the 
Queen of .Spain takes you under her personal care, and 
that it will fare ill with him who undertakes to harm you 
or prevent your elevation to the place of a Christian 
dame ! I have spoken ! Let those who love me, love this 
poor errant c'hild, and assist her stumbling feet on the 
road to salvation !" 

There was a murmur of approval on the men's part, 
and they solemnly lifted their dagger hilts and took the 
royal vow. Maritana had enchanted them. Their dames 
were not so enthusiastic. 

"Am I, then " began the gypsy, conjecturing that 

she was a kind of state prisoner — a queen's ape. 

■"To remain actually under my hand? It might be bet- 



l8 The Dancing Girl. 

ter so, but no; I would not so soon break the fetters that 
ni'ay bind you to those who have at least brought you to 
this age without defacing your lovehness !" 

It was the popular belief that the Egyptians disfigured 
their captives, while being as fond to their own offspring 
as any parents. It might be presumed that Maritana, 
therefore was a true Bohemian. Her reply as she re- 
gained courage would emphasize that belief. 

"Please, your majesty, while grateful for such right- 
royal bounty to the fullness of my heart, I beg respect- 
fully to desire not to be sundered wholly from those with 
whom I have always dwelt. I am not a house-dweller. 
Like the swallow I should die if not allowed to be ever 
on the wing. But if it is to please your kind and charita- 
ble majesty, why, let me die in your gilded cage. I live 
but to die for your majesty." 

"Prettily capped — this answer delig'hts me better than 
your clutching at the offer. Go your way, child, though 
among the briars. It is a narrow and devious way, no 
doubt, but it may lead sooner to happiness than the broad 
walks and the wide doorways of the palace. Go, yes ; but, 
Maritana, rem.ember the queen is your godmother if you 
renounce the fellowship of the beguiler and the slavery 
of the sinners. I would esteem it the brightest page in 
my life if I might have it accredited to me that I saved 
your soul from the Evil One, and your person, so charm- 
ing, from association with these fauns and diyads of the 
brake." 

It was a prudent speech, for the churchmen, who had 
begun to look black at the gypsy, were glad to have this 
sop thrown them. The Archbishop of Madrid spoke to 
liis almoner, and his voice was audible on purpose. 

"Lock after this spark, which must be plucked from 
those brands, fit only for the burning," said he. 

"My first gentleman-in-waiting," pursued the ro^al 



The Dancing Girl. 19 

speaker, "accompany the girl tO' her friends. No more 
singing, no more dancing, for lucre. They may sing if 
they like, but it is to be gratuitous, and out of fullness 
over the entertainment with which I express my grateful- 
ness at their having given me pleasure this red-letter day. 
A feast to the Egyptians !" 

Maritana retired with this additional kindness to show. 

"By all that is holy," thought Don Jose, ''this is mix- 
ing the one-hundred elect with the thousand excepted 
iThis is scvmet'hing to give my time to." 

At his slight beckoning, a clerk in the throng ap- 
proached him stealthily and listened to him without hav- 
mg the aspect of doing so. 

"Look to that gypsy!" said the lord. "Keep her in 
iaight, for she has enchanted the brooding queen. You 
must not let her quit the kingdom, or in my turn I will 
have you followed and chastised, though you sail round 
Cape Aiguillas." 

"I marked the whole, my good lord ! As sure as that 
I am the last scion of the once noble and high-placed 
Nigueraelas, I will watch well. But she will not flee!" 

"No?" 

"A gypsy will stay and fawn while there are still 
crumbs of the cake once given. That girl will be com- 
ing back to take singing lessons of the queen's instruc- 
tors in the harmonies and the orbo!" 

"Let me clasp hands with him, then! for I want that 
castaway to Team a song by which I may fill my pouch !" 

It was well that he had not attempted to pursue the 
quest in person, for while the gypsies and their friends 
were being feasted in the yard, an usher warily came up 
to the lieutenant-criminal, whom few accosted openly, 
and said, with deference: 

"My Lord of Santarem, the queen would see you in 
^■6 orangery at sunset this evening." 



20 The Dancing Girl. 

It was a private audience, such as grandees craved and 
hidalgoes danced attendance for. 

"Ho, ho !" chuckled Don Jose. "I may yet Hve in one 
of Madrid's ten or twelve palaces! Sparks issue from 
the clash of adamant and steel ; so may some particles of 
value strike off by the meeting of misery with mighti- 
ness." 

He howed assent to the messenger, and betrayed by 
his high step that he thought the first ministership might 
not be far out of reach. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE queen's confidant. 

Four lines of orange trees, borne in gigantic troughs, 
formed the Orangery of the Escurial. The bells of the 
Capella Mayor and of the Petty Chapel were tinkling for 
vespers while the police minister held his tryst. He did 
not feel impatience, for queens cannot keep appointments 
like shopkeepers' apprentices, their hours being at busi- 
ness or pleasure, as the kind of queen may be. 

"What!" cried he at last, as the long vista was ob- 
scured by a dark, shapeless figure. "Is it off? A mur- 
rain on it — I have not so many opportunities to advance 
myself to my goal as to lose this one with calmness! 
All, yes, it is the royal confessor! Good-even, Father 
Gonsalvo!" 

"Good-evening, my lord ! What a sacrilege !" 

"What, my smoking an Indian cigarro under the royal 
fruit?" 

"No, no! that rout, that pagan rabble out there 
carousing under the windows of the Major Chapel ! One 
can scarce hear the holy canticles amid those heathen 
jingles from the hoarse throats of sinners," 

"Oh, the gypsies revelling at the queen's expense. 
iWhat says the king about this adoption of one of that 
desperate spawn?" 

"The king? Your lordship ought to know that the 
king never has a moment to listen to any complaint." 

"I am aware of that — poor monarch ! as much to be 
pitied as a mortal like ourselves, between French in- 
trigue and German pertinacity! 'Fore Heaven! it is im^ 
pudent to pester a king in his mid-life to name his sue- 



22 The Queen's Confidant. 

cesser! They say — ^his grooms in waiting' — that he 
sleeps, when he does sleep, with one hand under the 
bolster !" 

"To keep it on his crown, there?" 

"You are a wag, father !" 

'T never was in more earnest when I say that it is 
the queen who sleeps with her hand under her pillow, but 
it ought to be with the key of the secret postern under 
it!" 

"Ho, ho! is she going to lend it to her new caprite, 
tliis wanderer, who is to be finished in music and made 
the female David to our Saul?" 

"Tliat is the knot !" 

"What, the gypsy!" 

''Or the stiletto to loosen the knot!*' 

"What knot?" 

"The charm tying up our sovereign. The buzzinf 
goes that he is absorbed in some single passion ! and the 
Lord deliver the realm from a ruler with but one 
fliought !" 

"My amen to that! What is the: thought, my rev- 
iCfend ?" 

The old priest let his cowl fall a little. He smoothed 
his smooth chin in its three folds and answered, with a 
merry twinkle of his small gray eyes : 

''One that he does not share with his confessor !" 

"Ask your brother, the queen's confessor, then ! He 
will withhold nothing from you — you are Nicolaites m 
such matters — you hold everything in common." 

"But this is not a common thought." 

"Strange that it is not k-nown to — to the general !" 

The .priest looked hard at the moble, and, accepting- k« 
true meaning, replied gravely: 

"Tliat is the rub; the General of the Inquisition lias 



The Queen's Confidant. 23 

made inquiries and learned notliing. The king's excur- 
sions are secret as the voyages of the Venetians !" 

"Carlos has become silent?" 

"Mo, the same garrulous one, but great speech goes 
with a little conscience !" 

"Save us ! Is it seeking the stone to turn all to gold?" 

"Spain has the gold ! The crumbling palace needs 
stones to repair it more than ingots." 

"Would he be too fond of hunting? Does he contem- 
plate making Andalusia a hunting forest? Would he re- 
vive hawking and waste level Teruel into one plain ?" 

"He hunts and he hawks, but not game and bird of our 
known hide and feather ! Save us !" 

"I dare not guess ! He was 'the Wild Prince' in his 
youth, and what youth took on, age is used to ! You 
think that when he slips out of the gateway in the south 
wall, he goes to meet " 

"Certainly none comes to meet him, for we have 
watched !" 

"Oh, if your lookouts, who are, I own, more valuable 
than mine, since mine work for filthy coin and yours for 
the heavenly pay — if your lookouts descry nothing, 
mine " 

"Oh, if it be a worldly lure, your men will the sooner 
trace him to the decoy I" 

"The decoy? No, Carlos is no follower of that ignis 
fatuiis, woman ! I should have perceived that long 
since! Depend upon it, he confers with some philoso- 
pher who has the draught which renews life, which fore- 
tells how a dynasty ends, which gives the glib tongue to 
deceive a French envoy, and the strong fist to impress 
the doughty German !" 

"My lord," said the other, seriously, "we have cott- 
^uded that the man who unravels this tangled skein may 



24 The Queen's Confidant. 

have all our votes in case he aspires to be the prime matf 
of the kingdom." 

Silently the noble's eyes expressed his content. He 
had reached the point when, himself overtasked, the 
friendly push would lift him w^here he could grasp the 
parapet and draw himself erect upon it. 

"My good father," said he, still breathlessly, "I un- 
derstand you. The motto is : 'Help you, and Heaven's 
ministers will help me!' " 

"You will win at the Primero, sir!" 

"Ah, if it were chess, with the bishops supporting the 
queen " 

"What is your last word?" 

"That I leap at the offer — I am nothing without your 
approval, holy father," 

"So instruct your lime-hounds." 

The man drew up his cowl and glided in his sandals 
noiselessly away under the arches which made the palace 
resemble a cloister. 

Don Jose resumed his vigils, pacing the long rows 
steadily, while musing, and humming an old Moorish 
song of love and battle. 

Presently two workmen, gardener's assistants, emerged 
from a toolhouse in an angle, and, without more than 
glancing at the amateur sentry, proceeded to trim the 
trees. 

Then, convinced that the lone gentleman was rather 
in favor of their movements than opposed, they ran 
along out of its cover a singular, but useful, engine. 

Novel to him, he had the curiosity to go in that direc- 
tion and observe their proceedings. 

This engine was such as are used in lofty buildings to 
enable a painter or cleaner at ease to get at the heights. 
A platform, surrounded by a small rail, to prevent one's 



The Queen's Confidant. 25 

being shaken over the edge, was worked upward by a 
screw turned by a cogwheel and crank. 

"What is that Jacob's ladder for, my friends?" inquired 
Don Jose, disturbed by the occupancy of this trysting 
ground. "Do you expect thus to reach a footing in 
paradise?" 

One of the men, with the gravity of common folk, re- 
sponded, as he bowed with his cap off: 

"Your lordship, while many a gallant has mounted 
among the angels, as he accounted them, by this ladder, 
it is used by us daily to let the man, thus elevated above 
his fellows, trim and prune the trees without injuring the 
least of the twigs or the fruits, which are counted. If 
}'XDur lordship will but be patient, we should not be sur- 
prised if his desire to add to his lore were amply gratified." 

The platform at the surface of this engine, controlled 
by the men at the winc'hes, steadily rose until it reached 
the level of the second story. 

"How ingenious!" cried Don Jose; "the most dainty 
page could thus hand a billet to the lady of his master's 
love!" 

"Or the maid of the beauty could descend to earth to 
bless the gallant with the reply!" returned the spokes- 
man of the pair. "But the best is yet to come. See!" 

A tall window opened like a door of two folds, at the 
level of the platform, and a woman threw inside the sur- 
rounding guard a mantle, which carpeted the boards. 
Almost immediately, as if this means of rising and fall- 
ing had been employed more than once before, a lady, 
for her richnes of cloak with its furred hood denoted that 
much, stepped out of the window upon the stage. Her 
attendant had raised the rail on that side in its socket 
and now replaced it. 

"Lower!" cried the maid, but in a repressed tone. 

•With the same care and mechanical regularity with 



26 The Queen's Confidant. 

which they had wound up the platform, the two men re- 
versed the winding beam, and the human load was safely 
brought to the ground. Don Jose stepped forward and 
offered his arm to help the lady step down- upon the 
gravel of the path. 

The men, convinced that their work was momentarily 
finished, said not a word. They retired into the tool- 
house, where something like a hoe handle, but possibly 
a musketoon barrel, indicated that they were watcl\ing 
the gardens — for moles! 

"Your majesty does me much honor," cried the po- 
lice lieutenant, who had time to fortify himself for thisi 
interview during the operation. 

"Why are you apprehensive? — alack! You need not 
fear that the king will surprise us ! He is not here at this 
hour. It is that of his disappearances!" 

"Well, your grace, if you do not know — who can call 
our liege to account for his hours' disposal?" 

"Is it my place, sir?" 

"No, not if, as I doubt, he but goes to counteract 
some caibal, some imbroglio in which his personal in- 
spection is indispensable." 

"I did not believe him so adventuresome!" she lightly 
scoffed. 

"If he personally thwarts a plot, whait glory and ex- 
ample to do-nothing rulers!" 

"The only plots in hatching are to replace him with 
a French prince or an Austrian archduke! Never, my 
lord, will he believe a Spaniard will hold out his hand 
to a foreigner, unless the national knife be in it!" 

"Well, the fascination of gambling " 

"You jest! a king need gamble only at his own ta- 
ble's; there, he may rely on always winning! No, he 
is playing, I think, a game where the king of hearts 
is to be warped from his liege!" 



The Queen's Confidant 27 

"Oho!" coug-hed Don Jose, almost speaking his glad- 
ness. 

"What do you say?" said she. 

"That the idea, saving your respect, is ridiculotis! 
though I lose my portfolio for my frankness!" 

"I hear " 

"Backstairs gossip^ — court-alcove tattle!" 

"I have other advices, not beneath my notice and 
quite credible as well as creditable." 

"But still there is no court beauty so disloyal, so 
inimical to her sex, to wifehood, to ordinary rules of 
amity, as to — ^oh, this treachery would be infamously 
ungrateful to your majesty." 

"What the inquisitor does not spy, and what you 
are blind to, my informants " 

"From the moment your majesty has a police of her 
own " 

"Your resignation is hypocrisy ! I do not believe youi 
to be an obstructor. But without warning to me, you 
allow my king to be absent for hours from the palace 
without his reasons and whereabouts being discov- 
ered." 

"To be sure, if no lady of the land would dare to rival 
your majesty, there may be one embodiment of disre- 
spect, who', failing to vie with the incomparable by fair 
means, employs foul ones." 

"Certainly, there are black arts as well as black hearts 
to use them!" 

"Precisely; love-potions, po'wders, talismans — my po- 
lice seize them by the basketful every month! This will 
go on as long as my petition is not heeded, that the 
quarter where lodge all the practicians of evil devices, 
•witches, sorcerers, Egyptians " 

"You are coming to the fire!" 

"'Ho! a gypsy " 



'',8 The Queen's Confidant. 

"Well, is it not written in the annals that one of your 
kings was entangled with a gypsy ?" 

"Let me see; Don Pedro, the Cruel, was in love with 
Maria Padilha, one of that branded race^ " 

"In love? A king love a rejected one!" 

"I should say, infatuated! When one is captivated by 
an inferior, love is not in the chapter ; it is infatuation !" 

"Yes, the Church cannot deal with love, which is a 
'blessed emotion — 'but infatuation is to be proceeded 
against by bell, book and candle!" 

"But, my gracious lady, if the gypsies " 

"If the gvpsies bewitch my lord, why should I ap)- 
plaud their stupid gambols and speak encouragingly 
of that daughter of Herodias who dances for my heart! 
It is because the queen wishes to learn what your po- 
lice and the spies of the Holy Tribunal fail to gather. 
And at the fountain-head, likewise. If I stoop to mak- 
ing a low creature like that gitana a pet, a plaything, 
a puppet, a magician's speaking-head to say 'my queen!' 
at a pinch, it is because I expect her to betray what 
goes on at midnight in that camp of pests and mis- 
creants which you, indeed, ought to be let stamp out." 

Don Jose, in the thickening darkness, felt that his 
■blazing eyes revealed his sudden admiration for the 
woman whom he had thought made of wax, but who 
through jealousy had become flesh and blood. 

"Admirable!" said he. "Well, I grant that my emis- 
saries would bring me a dozen of these skipjacks who 
•would own to everything, snatch purse and betake 
themselves to their native Africa, but none would be the 
one at whom the king has deigned to throw the hand- 
kerchief." 

"I would it were for her to be strangled with!" said 
the vindictive woman. 

"But since such a siren would not boast of it to us 



The Queen's Confidant. 2^ 

outside of her diabolical tribe, how single out the truei' 
offender? All are alluring, all good-looking in their 
alien mode, all daughters of the father of lies and mother 
of blandishments!" 

"What the inquisitor and your subordinates fall short 
of, I require of you." 

"It is not for me to shrink from the signal and ap- 
preciated task, great lady," said Don Jose, shuffling, 
"but, as it may oftend the king to "whom I owe my 
post " 

"A hangman's post! what better? Suppose we find 
)nou a higher and ennobling one! What do you say 
to the premier's?" 

The plotter pretended a surprise not felt, considering 
that he had already the formidable support of the priest- 
hood promised him. Recovering hastily, he joyously 
repHed: 

"As that would give me power to be usefully em- 
ployed in your majesty's service, I should rejoice and 
kiss the hand which gave me the place." 

"Then, while I try to prevail over this girl, you, on 
your part, must penetrate to the heart of that den of 
thieves, and witches' cave, and seek out the enticing 
evil!" 

"I venture in the ghetto?" 

"You are not fit for the head of the police unless 
you have dared to wade in that crime and guilt !" 

"Oh, I have obeyed my duty," replied Don Jose, 
afraid that he had been spied by the secret agents of this 
woman who might, indeed, have organized a police su- 
perior to his — that is, the king's. 

"Oh, I have had your daring and intrepidity reported 
to m.e! You have not hesitated to insinuate yourself 
where none but those of the league of dishonesty dared 



30 The Queen's Confidant. 

to go. Run the gantlet for me this time ; a good errand 
if ever a chief of police was set to one." 

"To gratify a queen, a lady!" said he, bowing. "I 
would do anything." 

"If it is through your guidance that the king is led 
back to his place, his last step will be over the portfolio 
of the prime minister — you understand \" 

"I am your majesty's devoted servant," said he. 
"May my rise be as artistically successful," added he, 
watching the lady mount the platform, and the men, 
who had come out of their concealment, repeat the 
operation of sending up the stage to the palace windows. 

The queen entered her rooms. 

When alone, she went into the praying-closet, but 
instead of praying, she muttered: 

"I do not wholly trust that ambitiouts spirit. I am 
going to manage my own police, and chief among them 
will be this gypsy girl, who, unless I much underrate her 
intelligence, knows what goes on in the Jewry among 
these pernicious outcasts." 

She looked at a mirror set in the cover of her missal, 
irreverent concession to mortality! and continued to her- 
self: 

"Oh, to be face to face with this rival! It is the lowly 
that too often debase the exalted to their dusty level!" 



CHAPTER III. 

SERPENT AND DOVE. 

As Madrid was the center of Spain, so is its Grand 
Plaza the heart, full of lifeblood and fire, of Madrid. 

This was an epitome of the whole city. 

In the cathedral, the church; in the grand mansions, 
the nobility ; in the shops and stores, the merchants and 
'bankers; in the hovels of the back streets and winding 
alleys, the lowest orders. 

Between a fountain, due to the Saracens or perhaps 
the Romans, and a drinking-den, two contrasts of provi- 
sions allowing the toper and the temperate to suit their 
tastes, opened the dirty maw of the ghetto, the sink into 
which was poured at dusk all the cripples, the ailing, the 
contaminating, the denounced, the outlaws, the espewed 
and the revengeful of humanity. 

It was toward evening; beggars and musicians, bearers 
of Oriental and African musical instruments, hideo'us in 
tune and exasperating when out of tune, limped home to 
their burrows. But as was the order among these 
brothers of the lute and "loot," all took a halt before the 
wine-house. 

Here hobnobbed the still honest, ill-paid soldier, the 
thief whose pence was the residue of the gains the re- 
ceiver made of his hard-got spoil, the wreck and the 
youth just emba'rked on the perilous voyage. 

While the lime-frothed wine flowed, and the children 
groped in the gutter for crusts and half-gnawed bones, 
Maritana, returning from her day'^s performances, darted 
upon the old stone block guarding the entrance of the 
court from the coach wheels, and began to sing, while the 



32 Serpent and Dove. 

varied instruments accompanied her as well as the Voices 

O'f the chorus. 

Those who had witnessed her vocalism at the palace 
would have comprehended that a great artist is inspired 
by the company. What there was chaste and soaring in 
her verse under the royal eyes, was free and tantalizing 
with her cronies around. 

"Pahli (brothers), tread a merry measure I 
We're the boys who furnish pleasure 

Cheaper than what tapsters bring! 
But for us there'd be no laughter — 
Maybe there comes none hereafter — 

So be jolly; let Care swing!" 

"Viva los Egipchios!" said the young man who had 
been Maritana's partner at the palace dance, and who, 
taking off his tattered sombrero, went the rounds to col- 
lect of the vagrants as they had collected of the burghers. 

"Are you going indoors so early, Maritana of my 
heart?" said this volunteer attendant, pouring the coinis 
of all sorts into her kerchief, which she took off and tied 
it up as in a bag. 

"No, I am going to the bridge to catch a breath of 
fresher air. It is like the plague in the passages to-night. 
I am depressed as if a calamity ovei4iung us." 

"Can I still be your cavalier?" 

"No, I would rather be alone." She paused at a stand 
v/here a harridan, draped in second-hand clothes, and 
wearing a gaudy Indian scarf over her gray head, was 
selling black beans cooked in oil. She grasped a hand- 
ful, hot though they were, and laughing in the hag's face 
at the idea of payment, bounded off. 

"Ah, they are fresh, Maritana," reproached the woman, 
"and what is two coppers to you who amass fortunes?" 

"Pay her Csesario !" cried the girl at a distance, to her 



Serpent and Dove. JJ 

cavalier, and she •disappeared in the crowd on the plaza, 
mixed, of every degree. 

"Pay her ! It is all very well to say pay, but " the 

man went playfully t'hroug*h the mockery of running his 
pockets through. "Why, she has taken the collection 
with her." 

"Not to throw it into the Manzanares, mark you," said 
a gypsy. 

"A pound of pence would make our river overflow its 
banks," retorted the ragged knight, repeaiting 'his forlorn 
search. 

The toothless beldame looked up and mumbled with a 
■grin : 

"Beseeching the liberty, my lord, let this go over to 
your account. Lord ha' mercy on the downfallen. I 
knew your father's house when the butler courted me. 
Never shall it be said that the Count of Garofa, who has 
the born right to wear his hat before the king, should 
want to fill that hat with fried beans, and Dame Discon- 
•olada should require cash for it." 

"Oh, you, too, know me ! Why, I might as well have 
my title branded on my shoulder, like most of you carry 
the town-mark ! But you are mistaken, pretty dame. 
We have acquaintances at court, now, in the kitchen, 
and we have money in some of our pockets. Tomaso !" 

He called out to a young gypsy of elegant manners 
who passed on a horse which, halt and fagged, would on 
the morrow sell as a magnificent Arab courser at the 
horse mart, thanks to the gypsy jockeying. 

"Tomaso, pay Dame Disconsolada ten crowns for me! 
Against my steward next sending my rents to town." 

All laughed at the rider as he stopped, and, drawing 
some silver out of a satchel, tossed the pieces upon the 
pile of uncooked beans before the frying-pan. 

"T-ten crowns!" repeated the old woman, unable toj 



34 Serpent and Dove. 

believe her senses, for she supplemented that of sight 
by feeling without being convinced. 

"Why, so! Because you trusted the lady and the 
broken-down gentleman? Remember, Tomaso, at my 
next haul!" 

"Your honor is too good," replied the horseman, rid- 
ing off negligently. 

"I wish," said this associate of the riff-raff, whom the 
bean-fryer had hailed as the Count of Garofa, one of the 
oldest peers of the United Kingdoms, "I wish the lass 
had not carried off the bag. I fear that she may fall the 
prey to highwaymen." 

This was the cream of jokes. Rob a gypsy in the 
sight of her tribe and all their allies! And dark coming 
on, by the same token! 

And Maritana, their idol ! If a hair of her head were 
brushed the wrong way, why all Madrid had not the gar- 
rison to prevent the outcasts wreaking vengeance. 

"I suppose I had better go look after her." 

"Go and look after her, brother," said a dilapidated 
blackamoor, who was "Duke of Egypt;" that is, king of 
the pariahs for the season. "Though you have not yet 
jumped over the beggar's staff with her and drawn the 
straws out of the beggar's wallet to learn from futurity 
how many years you should live together, you are, Don 
Caesar, of my bosom, brother of the girl and ours. Go in 
peace!" 

But as Don Caesar de Bazan, Count of Garofa y Bel- 
orda, for he had not usurped the proud titles, started on 
his chivalrous errand, he was startled to see the girl hur- 
riedly returning. 

Her face had turned pale, her steps were unsteady, so 
that she almost tripped in the wretched hollows, and her 
hands twitched with terror. Out of them she designedly 



Serpent and Dove. 35 

poured the beans, at which she had been pecking like a 
pigeon, when she quitted the alley mouth. 

"What the devil is pursuing her, that she throws the 
black beans behind her to stall off the pursuit!" criedli 
Don C^sar, long enough familiar with these birds of the 
night to know this superstitious counter-charm. "Why, 
there is a fellow, in a cloak worth snatching, following 
her as the fish follows the bait! And, zoons! another 
doak in the recess of the goldsmith's a-watching both 
with eyes like coals." 

He carried a hand round to his long sword hilt, and, 
without drawing it, proceeded to intervene between the 
dancing-girl and this too fervent admirer. 

But, abruptly changing her intention, the girl not only 
ceased to retreat, but, disengaging a tambourine hung by 
a ribbon at her girdle of gilt metal, in proof of her being 
an outlaw, she faced the pursuer with this extended as 
a sexton holds out the alms box. 

Her defender stopped, but retained hold of his rapier. 

The second cloaked stranger remained in his conceal- 
ment, and watched with the burning eyes the gypsy's 
colleague had remarked. 

"I had forgot," said the dancer, to herself. "I must 
make up a great sum to enable me to follow the instruc- 
ti'on which the queen's singing-master assures me is nec- 
essary to fit me for a rise out of this hateful mire." Then 
retracing a few steps, so that the follower had to stop 
not to run up against her, she said, sweetly, overcoming 
her scruples: 

"If you please, though you did not come in time to 
hear the ballad — maravedi?" 

"A maravedi, forsooth!" said the gentleman; for he 
was one, by the richness of his habiliments under the 
cloak which had in itself betrayed his degree to the ex- 



36 Serpent and Dove. 

perienced Don Caesar. "I scorn to pay such melody 
with copper!" 

His scornful gesture was mistaken by the dancer, v/hoi 
murmured disappointedly: 

"Ah, am I losing the charm of gleaning coin from 
purses ?" 

But as the stranger, perceiving the mob at the ghetto 
entrance very forbidding, rapidly turned to flee, she 
heard a heavy piece fall and rebound on the Basquei 
drum, and she exclaimed: 

"Gold! A piece of two pistoles — seventeen shillings! 
Oh, I cannot tell how many silver crowns, without the 
abacus! I can buy a new psaltery with this! And 1 
was afeard to wait for that noble, generous caballero, be- 
cause he looked at me so hard and ardently." 

The spy in the doorway watched after the donor with 
a startled mien. 

"By the hope of my life, that is Don Carlos! The 
royal adventurer steers his bark into rocky seas. This 
is his weak side, his foible, is it! He has fallen in love 
with this waif, this bit of tinsel afloat on the kennel pooll 
And do I censure him? Not I, for faith! — it is no hard 
confession — I am enamored with her up to the eyes my- 
self!" 

"If this police spirit in the goldsmith's archway stared 
at me as he did at that liberal virtuoso," observed Don 
Csesar, fidgeting with his sword handle, "I should fee! 
inclined to spit him to that doorway, which is of good 
ironwood out of Brazil; but methinks this fleeing one is 
of importance. I must learn how he bestows himself." 

But the chase was not so easily carried out as projected. 

Hardly had he put this plan into execution than his 
way was impeded by the purest of accidents or the best 
arranged of obstacles. First, a passenger parting with 
a friend, with a prodigious bow. backed into him; andl 



Serpent and Dove. 37 

th«n two mulatto women, carrying a huge buck-basket 
loaded with linen, forced him into a wide detour; and, 
finally, three soldiers of the Foreign Guards, linked arm 
in arm, and swaggering over the space, brought him to 
a standstill, or he would have had a triple quarrel on his 
hands. 

He was forced to desist and see, at a distance, the 
ostentatious rewarder of vocalism disappear in a horse- 
litter waiting at a corner under an illuminated shrine. 

"If it is one of the four sword-bearing saints!" ejacu- 
lated the baffled defender of the gitana, then may St. 
George, Michael, Peter, or Abdiel — I am forgetting my 
beads among these infidels ! and I a zndame, champion of 
an abbey, as an inheritance! may these saints bring me 
to meet that rogue again ! We shall see if his bilbo is as 
long as his infernal purse, which has made Maritana's 
eyes start out of her head! She is beauteous — she is 
iwitty, and she — 'but she is covetous ! I begin to believe 
she is a born gypsy, and not a stolen Christian babe !" 

Hiding this conclusion from its object, he returned to 
her side. She gave him a handful of small pieces, say- 
ing: 

"Pay for the beans, and distribute the rest with the 
comrades ! This is my birthday !" 

"The deuce it is!" 

"Did you mark the giver of that doubloon?" 

"I did not pay any heed ! Just a gallant who had won 
a giold- washed groat at a gambling-house !" 

"Washed? As well say he was no genuine gentle- 
man !" and she gave a little scream of fright in handling 
the denounced coin. 

"Oh, if he had been a courtier, I should have recog- 
mized him!" said the downfallen count, earnestly. 

"Not a nobleman — ^not a good doubloon !" muttered 



}8 Serpent and Dove. 

Maritana, sadly. Suddenly shaking off her moadine|8, 
she exclaimed, joyously, or at least relieved: 

"Here is a goldsmith! We shall learn in a trie* 
[whether this is sham and, consequently, the giver another 
counterfeit of his betters." 

Don Csesar paused, but, unfortunately, he heard a lottd 
[whoop of intense enjoyment. 

"The rogues — they have had a heaping harvest ! They 
'have had the host of the Water-porters' Arms broach a 
fresh barrel of that goodish Miravel wine, as strong as 
its castle!" 

He considered that his partner was following and 
hastened to join the revellers. 

Maritana proceeded up into the deep overhang of the 
goldsmith's, which was the fair title for a shop where 
valuables were left for security, the safekeeper kindly 
providing for the owner's immediate wants by a small 
loan out of all proportion to the value. 

But no sooner had she entered this kind of trap, when 
she was stopped by the man in a cloak, who, letting it 
drop aside, showed that he was splendidly clad in bright 
colors and rare cloth; a gold chain gleamed, and his 
sword had a magnificent handle. The feather in his con- 
ical hat was also of price, 

"A gold coin!" cried he, as if he had not seen how it 
had been thrust upon her. "Let me appraise it." 

"No, I " 

"Pooh! you can trust me more than that! a trifle to 
what your musical gifts earn you — and what the honor- 
able patroness whose assistance you stupidly reject will 
shower in a hundredfold ! But, to prove that I am above 
robbing you, take this !" he said, giving her a heavy gold 
piece. 

*Tt is the same !" she cried. 



Serpent and Dove. }9 

"It is the fellow. Out of the same royal mint, look 

ye?" 

"Thank you; but, sir " 

"It will buy you music books to spell over the lute you 
yearn for !" 

"Yet, I fear " 

"What?" and he laughed with forced mirth, for he 
sought to please her; "my powers of divination? Oh, 
I can leave those tricks to you and your tribe.' 

"I shrink from the tempter!" continued she, shudder- 
ing while unable to tear her sight from the glittering 
coins. 

"Is that the name you have for me already?" 

"No, no," she went on, in a dreamy way. "It is this 
arch-tempter! When I was a child and played under 
the cart, and strayed into the copses around our iso- 
lated camp, my step was light, my smiles many and 
bright, and my song as free as the robin's — all showed 
that I was as devoid of care as of dread. But now " 

"What is there fearsome in 'Now,' pray thee?" 

"The hopes and fears of womanhood oppress " 

"You talk of womanhood — a child, yet! for you are 
not over sixteen or seventeen at furthest, eh?" 

"I do not know. Look not into a gypsy pedigree! 
Am I a gypsy, even? Sometimes, their treatment of me 
seemed to point out that I was not of their blood. 
There are secrets of the Zingari which they do not 
let the women into — from which they exclude me, any- 
how!" 

"You are fair enough to be dropped out of the spheres 
above. Your song is as if out of a seraphic mouth. 
You may be noble, for these brownskin tutors of yours 
are famous as child-stealers; but this oppression! why, 
oppression, when you ought to have heart and song 
and step light and blithe? If you find more reward 



40 Serpent and Dove. 

than ever falling like the gold, it is because yota de- 
serve the higher recompense for delighting that mop- 
ing, morose creature — man." 

She shook her head as if she did not understand the 
drift. 

"No, I am no longer a girl. I know that I am a 
woman and that I am a fair one, too!" 

"The fairest of the fair!" cried he. 

"Then, being a woman, I must welcome the bearers 
of incense to be burnt at my shrine." 

"Certainly; that is well. Nothing is too rich and 
sweet to be offered to your beauty," and Don Jose 
made as if to fling his purse into her hands. 

"No, no! my pedestal will hold me up too high. The 
fall would be fatal — unbearable, since I should retuirn 
to the gutter." 

"This is the right time to meet her," chuckled the 
intriguer, speaking aloud with suave accents. "Once 
on the pedestal you are entitled to, think that a ready 
and mighty hand may sustain you if you become giddy 
at the outset, when unaccustomed to the elevation! 
My hand is ready if not mighty," added he, hypocritic- 
ally, for his modesty was palpably false. "But do not 
shrink. I am but the statuary who is content when his 
statue is reared on its base. Let me only be allowed 
to worship with the others!" 

This was the first time that she had spoken with an 
educated man who might compre'hend her still vague 
longings. For Don Caesar, airy and restless, had never 
inspired this kind of confidence. She forgot the place 
and the time — everything — to outpour her host of trou- 
blesome thoughts. 

"Oh, you flatter me, but the street-singer and dancer 
for the herd. She reckons her own worth closer; or, at 



Serpent and Dove. 41 

least', she knows what poor esteem is really given her. 
She covets gold." 

"I see that!" and he said to himself: "That fills me 
with anticipation of molding you, my image." 

"Gold; it will free from that hideous crew — from bond- 
age, at v/hich my soul spurns and which loathes it all." 

"Ambitious! Good, good! Be ambitious! We are 
not all clods to smell eternally of the earth." 

"I am like a felon in chains — no means to sever them, 
no strength to break them, but gold furnishes the fire 
which will in time melt them. Each gift, then, such as 
I owe to you, and the other gentlemen, and the populace, 
though in pence, all help to keep up tlie consuming flame. 
I shall yet be free!" 

Don Jose smiled, and almost looked handsome in the 
glow. This was the heaven-sent instrument. The king 
in love with her; she aspiring to the highest degree; and 
he enamored, though he did not quite acknowledge this 
tender point. 

"Sir, sir, have I not cause to dread the end?" 

"Fudge! What end?" 

"What comes to all my sisters in the family — ^the royal 
mark?" 

She slapped her shoulder. Jose shuddered, for he 
could not contemplate even in fancy the possibility of 
this beautiful being burned on the shoulder by the hang- 
man's brand. 

"Never!" cried he, warmly. "It would be profanation! 
You intimate that you may not be a gypsy ! By my hali- 
dom, we will produce the documents to prove that! If 
we find not some parents to own you, then it will be be- 
yond the stretch of the — never mind! All things can be 
done to gratify beauty allied with wit! The royal mark, 
quotha! You will wear the royal marks, indeed, but 
they will be — all your wishes conceive! Your fore- 



42 Serpent and Dove. 

shadowing-s are not dark but light — rays from the lamp of 
the throne room ! Zoons ! when one has your gifts, pre- 
sentiments are all magic! Your atmosphere is one of 
hope!" 

"I grant that since the queen applauded me, and prom- 
ised me her support in bettering my wild and uncultured 
mind, I cherished the thought that my ambition ceased 
to be criminal." 

Don Jose rubbed his hands. 

"Come, come," said he, fondly, in his most coaxing 
voice ; "turn for turn, let me play the soothsayer. I have 
crossed your hand wirh gold — let me read upon it the 
golden future." He took her hand and caressed it with 
"his other. It was like a serpen't coiling around a dove. 
"Believe me, confide in this adorer, and by my hope of 
salvation, here and above, all, all you yearn for shall be 
fulfilled." 

In the recess, his eyes burned like coals out of the in- 
most heat, again. 

"Fulfilled? all? ah, you do not know how boundless 
are a maiden's yearnings." 

"I have a failing — I do so like to help the young and 
meritorious in this world of impediments. I, luckily, 
have the power to soMdify your dreams into realities." 

"You !" 

He let his mantle unfold, and the sumptuousness of 
his court attire, the gold ornaments, the badges and in- 
signia impressed her, for the Egyptians had biased her 
mind toward tinsel and glifter. She was overcome, im- 
pressed, enchanted. 

"Your wishes shall be laws for the princes and dukes." 

She panted ; it was like unexpectedly uncovering a 
table loaded with luxuries before a starveling. 

"You need only quit those sordid environs, those 
ecurvy associates^ to link yourself longer with whom will 



Serpent and Dove. 4^ 

drag you by the same chains to the cart-tail for a whip- 
ping, to the stocks for a forced rest, to the gaMows for a 
suspension from all active life! Come to a life at the 
end of which is not the hole by the wayside, but a tomb 
in the vault of your ancestors 1 Wear no wreaths of hum- 
ble flowers but a crown of gold and gems, no ragged 
skirt but a robe with velvet train and pages bearing up 
the weight ! You have only to come to your first step to- 
ward that goal ! You are now the darling of Madrid, 
With my aid you will be the glory of Spain !" 

"No, no!" she gasped, but did not snatch away her 
hand from his warm and tightening grip. 

"Pish ! a wom.an's nay stands but for naught!" said he, 
drawing her out of the recess. 

But instinct told her to shun this rock which might af- 
ford a short rest, but would dash her to pieces inevitably 
when its time came also to be thrown down into shivers. 

At this instant, a flourish of trumpets was heard at the 
cathedrcl. The queen must have gone there for the cer- 
emonies of Easter, for the fanfare indicated that one of 
the royal family was thus greeted on coming forth. There 
was a rush of the loungers on the plaza and the hundreds, 
gathering in lines behind the archers and halberdiers, 
raised a loud cheer of "Long life to the queen !" 

"The queen !" re-echoed the gypsy dancer, "she is above 
mercenary impulse ! She has been good to me ! I re- 
pelled her offers to lift me out of my misery! Well, 
rather her to trust to than you, sir, without offense! I 
will appeal to her majesty." 

Contrary to her apprehension, the courtier did not try 
to detain her. After all, the queen, having engaged him 
to be her confidant, this was an escape from one shark 
into the jaw of its mate ! 
^ He released her hand, muttered : "Ever I wish yod 



44 Serpent and Dove„ 

well !" and merrily blew a kiss after her in her flight, nim- 
ble as a fawn's. 

Then he laughed deeply to himself, and thought that 
he had mastered more arduous problems than to manipu- 
late the plastic nature of a girl to his purposes. His rea- 
soning was clear. The king admired this witch of all 
Madrid. The piece of vanity whom impudent aspirations 
raised to the fellowship of royalty must be grateful to him 
who had furnished the carriage-steps. 

"What about her origin? She seems much above her 
low degree. She is a fairy to be a gitana ! Oh, we will 
forge a family record, as I promised her! The greater 
she is made, the greater will be the queen's animosity 
when she discovers it is Maritana, her rival I It is an un- 
pardonable wrong for any woman to bear, and keenest in 
all in a queen. She will resent it ! Oh, my guardian an- 
gel's day, this ! I held back from presuming- that so 
shortly all would come into my lap out of that thorny 
tree." 

He was about to follow to where the queen was step- 
ping into her carriage at the church entrance, when a vio- 
lent commotion not only filled the Jewry outlet, but £ 
surge of the human sea burst forth. 

In a moment he was entangled in a host of men, citi- 
zens, gypsies, vagabonds and watchmen, trying in vain to 
suppress a tumult. 

Making a sign by which his agents in the multitude 
would recognize the head of the royal police, Jose forti- 
fied himself with some twenty of these desperadoes and 
peered into the scuffle. 

"Death of my life!" said he; "it is the partner of that 
gypsy dancer ! It is — oh, my cousin, the dissipated Count 
of Garofa!" 



CHAPTER ly. 

COUSINS IN CONTRAST. 

It was only by a glimpse that Don Jose had recog'- 
nized his college mate at the University of Salamanca, 
patronized by the nobility twenty years before. 

This glimpse was temporarily afforded. For the man 
was set upon by several bullies and swashbucklers, who, 
unable to draw their preposterously long swords in a 
close combat, hung about the victim as bulldogs upon a 
baited bull. 

The single fighter held his own, using his dagger by 
the hilt, so held as to beat like a maul ; he pummeled, 
blow for blow, evaded the treacherous stabs by catching 
the points in his rolled-up cloak, as a true Spaniard and 
one inured to such encounters could alone do. Pres- 
ently two or three of the hectors, who had enough of 
the struggle, one-sided though it was, stumbled and fell 
into the kennel, v>^here their blood mingled with the gar- 
bage and mud. The others, grasped by the muffled arm, 
gasped that they were strangled, and implored relief for 
the love of the martrys, whose fate their own promised 
to equal. Lastly, a persistent antagonist, resorting to 
treachery worse than that already attempted without 
serious avail, dropped on all fours and sought to ham- 
string the brave and unconquerable hero. 

Perceiving or divining this cowardly move, Don 
Cassar lifted his stout Cordovan boot, which, while with- 
out spur, was dangerous with its massy heel. He dealt 
such a kick as a wild horse might alone imitate, and the 
wretch, his breath knocked out of his body, rolled twenty 
paces until brought to a stop against the first house door. 



46 Cousins in Contrast. 

over which hung one of those wooden crosses denoting 
that the plague-stricken lay there. 

Dispensing with this final attacker, Bazan slowly re- 
leased the pair, whom he had not ceased to hug. They 
staggered back, as if the bear of the Pyrenees had era- 
braced them, opened their mouths without power to emit 
a cry, and fell doubled up. 

The victor stood erect, looked round with a ferocious 
glare, as if seeking fresh foes, and uttered a "Viva Es' 
pana and the Garofas !" like a warcry. 

"Don't you get up," said he sarcastically to the fallen 
scoundrels, sprawling and vainly trying to stand on their 
feet. "You asses are only in your natural position — on 
your hoofs !" 

Then, as if he were before a mirror in a dressing-room 
of his ancestral mansion, he leisurely pulled his tatters 
into a show of decency; 

The victory and this coolness deserved a better result 
than instantly befell it. 

The watchmen, reinforced by their comrades coming 
over from the cathedral, where they were no longer re- 
quired since the queen had departed, did not care to 
handle the beaten ruffians, besmeared with mire and 
blood. According to the best traditions of their profes- 
sion, to make an arrest without much regard to the guilt 
of the party, and with as much respect for their own 
safety as possible, they moved in a mass upon the soli- 
tary man. They reasoned that, formidable though he 
had been to the bandits, he was now exhausted and must 
submit to the authorized apprehenders. Besides, it is 
regretable to say, but already the degraded Count of 
Garofa bore a bad name among the archers of the city 
watch from having turned over their sentry-boxes and 
feet cords across the street to trip them up. 

They surrounded Don C^sar, It was a wise manc3eu- 



Cousins in Contrast 47 

vre, since their ranks separated him from the outcasts' 
quarter, seething with excitement at this furious hurly- 
burly. 

He seemed to disregard them in his attention to his 
frayed toilet. The bystanders, after admiring him for 
his courage, now smiled at his reckless humor. 

"The curs!" said he, loudly, like one who lived in pop*" 
ular breath, "they have spoiled my rufitles, veritable Bra- 
bant lace! But for it disgracing my sword, which came? 
out of the armory of Vincenzo of the Rose-alley, Toledo, 
I should have spitted the whole six of them like larks for 
a breakfast! Zoons!" continued he with a pretended 
distress, which drew out a roar, "they have despoiled me 
of my gold-thread galloon, a yard good measure, worth 
three pistoles!" 

The watchmen crept nearer and began to close in. 

"See," said he, recognizing his old foes, with a merry 
nod, "I call upon you as witnesses that the cutpurses have 
carried away my purse — green silk with silver cord, 
woven for me by a pretty seamstress of the Santa Catha- 
rina quarter, and she would not accept a penny piece for 
it I My purse, my purse ! Oh, frowning Fortune, cursed 
dame!" he sang, "and I had invited the aldermen of the 
Red Cross parish and the chief clerk of the corrector to 
supper at the Ca-stle-and-Lion on a baked pig-of-the- 
waters with a pasty of venison to follow, which venison 
came from a royal buck, killed, between ourselves, when 
the king was not hunting!" 

"We will provide for your supper," said the lieutenant 
of the watch, advancing with the thought that this irre- 
pressible jester would be wasted on "the ruck" when he 
might amuse them in the guard-room. "I offer you 
lodgings in the casa of the pubhc corrector!" 

"Your old apartments!" added a waggish sergeant. 

"Arrest me, the butt, the foil, the victim of this out* 



48 Cousins in Contrast. 

rage!" cried tixt injured Don Caesar, clapping his hand 
noisily to his sword. "I, to be lodged where those night- 
butterflies are entitled to the first pick of beds! I, con- 
founded with those Knights of the Moon; I, indubitably 
Knight of San Jago, of the Fleece, and the Sepulchre! 
Gentlemen of the Watch, hie you to recover my prop- 
erty, v/hich was taken by those highwaymen, and leave 
my presence!" 

Two or three hands were held out to clutch his collar. 

"Hold, did you not hear me — ^^that the rogues had 
conveyed off my purse — now I know that I cannot slip 
through your fingers since I cannot grease the fist!" 

The allusion to the guardians being corrupt filled their 
chief with indignation. 

"My men," said he, in a hoarse voice, "bring that runa- 
gate along — his part is played, his song ended! I be- 
lieve that he has given the quietus to one of those unfor- 
tunate fellows — see, he stirs not in the gutter!" 

"Bah!" said Don Ceesar, "you ought to be better 
judge of a man in liquor! If he looks reddened, it is 
the splatter of wine — he broke a bottle of cherry brandy 
when I first smacked his chaps! Do you see," he went 
on to gain time, "that is a knave not to be pitied. An' 
illiterate dog, and from the alien regions, too. I believe 
he is Dutch! Centes, no clerk! for, when he sat at the 
board to throw the bones with me, he hailed me as a coun- 
tryman of Sir Vantess. Shade of the romancero! Cer- 
vantes, to be knighted, only — ^that should have been 
lifted to the peerage for his immortal novel! But this 
dullard, he no sooner heard I was a noble, than he asked 
me after the health of Don Quickshot! and Hanky 
Panky! Don Quixote and Sancho Pancho, thus trans- 
mogrified by a blundering Hollander! I wouid I had 
stabbed him for his ignorance, but you would say that I 



Cousins in Contrast. 49 

beat him with my superior sword-play because he beat 
me at dice-play!" 

"Enough prating!" said the acting-captain of the watch, 
'*bring the loiterer along at quick pace!" 

By this time, the more daring of the beggarmen and 
the Bohemians had gathered in order to fall in a body 
upon the tlank of their enemies, and it seemed that Don 
Caesar would as easily escape the archers as he did the 
gamesters, but rather by assistance than by his single 
address. 

"Hold!" broke in a voice not awaited, as the Marquis 
of Santarem, drawing back his cloak to show the badge 
of lieutenant-criminal, stepped up to the watchmen. "Let 
that man go. I myself saw most of the riot, and he 
was solely acting on self-defense. Drive home those 
spillings of the Jewry to swelter in their resorts and 
clear the square of saunterers, for it is too late for good 
men to be abroad." 

As his agents also revealed their office and supported 
him in ordering the archers about, the chief of the watch 
sullenly obeyed. 

Don Cssar, left untouched, hesitating between re- 
joining his companions, who allowed themselves to be 
hustled into the purlieus of the rear of the cathedral, or 
to thank this befriender, saw the latter beckon to him. 

He pressed on his sword hilt, which threw up behind 
tiim the frayed cloak into a burlesque martial draping, 
and boldly came up to the nobleman. 

Some charitable hands proceeded to help the fallen ras- 
cals to limp away; and, indeed, none of them were seri- 
ously hurt, with their toughened skins and skill in avoid- 
ing stabs. 

"As you announced your degree," began Don Jose, "I 



50 Cousins in Contrast. 

cannot be mistaken in addressing you, my lord, as Don 
Caesar de Bazan?" 

"I am he." 

"We are cousins, and we were in the class of theologji 

at Salamanca, were we not?" 

He tilted back his hat to show his face, at present 
irradiated with the inviting mien of one seeking an end 
by gentle means. 

"Now, give me grace. It is Cousin Jose! Count '* 

"I am the Marquis of Santarem. I suppose you have 
been out of sound of the court herald proclaiming* 
changes of rank?" 

"Yes, I have been among the Turks! Not that 1 
notice the difference in the manners here. You will 
overlook my disordered costume, for those light-fingered 
gentry did not touch me lightly!" i 

"I suppose, coz, you were careless enough to drinfi 
with them. Well, no harm befalls the drunken !" 

"I, drunk ! Not in a hogshead of it, like that English 
prince drowned in Malmsey! If I am preserved while 
my hat is battered and my garments frayed, it is through 
the love of the angels (he saluted with his hat) for good 
men!" 

Jose held out his hand. His old friend looked greedily 
at the ruff, it was of the costly Brabant lace with which 
he had affected to gird his own wrists. He sighed. 

"Marquis, and so much of a grandee that the city 
watch bowed and allowed themselves to be called ofl 
their prey! Well, you have prospered!" 

"And you? Still the same devil-may-care that had a 
good heart and a kind nature!" 

"Ay — 'a scholar is always in frolicsome mood!' as we 
sang at the university ! And I am still a scholar, learn- 
ing to — well, everything but drink — that came so «arlj 
that I believe I was cradeled in a puncheon 1" 



Cousins in Contrast. 5 1 

"You are still young yet ; you look not old, but jaded !" 

"My old playfellow, the heart is a coin with youth oa 
one side and wisdom on the reverse! That applies to 
JX)U, Senor Gravity, for I am the coin stamped out and 
imperfectly smoothed on the recto, where, the Lord only 
knows what word will be implanted. 'Disinherited,' I 
guess !" 

"You drink deep?'' 

*'To the dregs, and they are bitter " 

**Fond of good living?" 

"I have a marrow bone for my back tooth !" 

"Not fond of dress?" 

*^Poverty is a field of nettles — they card out one's fine 
linen and warm woolens! The scapegoat has a ragged 
vest ! I am a free commoner now ! higher than a count — 
a king! And my kingdom is those airy pastures — the 
eirl the sweet, free air!" 

"Is this all that is left of that noble name and princely 
fortune ?" 

"The princely fortune has left — ^the noble name is left 
— you look too much of the peacock making his wheel to 
require it to back a note, but it may serve you at a pinch !" 

"No, I thank you," returned the marquis, proudly. 

"I see you ride the high horse — now, I am chums with 
Poverty, and the poor have no shame !" 

"I have reached up to great things — I had hoped that 
you would have secured the same, in some foreign land, 
where a good sword is valued to its utmost." 

"I may not have done great things," replied Caesar, 
laughing, "but I have done great men — Florentine mer- 
chants. Lombard money-princes, usurers of all races! 
And if I have not reached great prizes, I have over- 
reached those who enjoyed them. But all in honor ! That 
Is v/hy I sleep between ease and honor, so rarely quiet 
bedfellows !" 



^2 Cousins in Contrast. 

"You may sleep in your own bed soon !" said Jose, fei<° 
vently, with feigned cordiality. 

"It will have to be redeemed from the pawnbrokers !" 
"I thought that your sire left you a fortune !" 
"True! But when I returned from Algiers they had 
let me loose without a stitch on me — it took all to renew 
my wardrobe and linen, my clothes, and — throat!" 
"And my father paid all your debts once !" 
"He did, and I shall be glad if his son puts me under 
the like obligation ! I am frank, eh ?" 

"Devilish too much so!" muttered the marquis. 
"The force of habit piled up fresh ones ! They are not 
outlawed yet, unhappily 1" 

"Two or three fortunes! You would bankrupt the 
treasury of Peru I This is paying dearly for your dance- 
music !" 

"That depends on the kind of dance and the partners F 
"Humph !" and Jose frowned, recalling the measure 
paced before the queen by this saucy speaker and Mari- 
tana. 

"But I am not singing psalms of despair! I am now 
clean as a splinter ! Necessity is a better teacher than any 
of the greybeards at the university! When one's purse 
is swept out like a chimney, one bears its 'being whisked 
ofl without a whimper. Besides, if a robber borrowed it, 
I may win it back, filled anew, over the card board. Not 
having money, I am not teased by poor relatives, which 
freedom you will appreciate unless you have changed 
your character, being — you will excuse me ! — rather cur- 
mudgeonly ! I have not an acre, so I have no grumbling 
tenantry to face when I stroll through the country, I 
have no laid-down road, so that I never swear at taking a 
■wrong turning. All my paths, while with the gypsies, 
lead to Roam ! — ha ! ha ! I have nothing to take care of 



Cousins in Contrast. 5) 

but my sword. The scabbard is out at elbows, like its 
master, but the sight of the sharp steel peeping through 
gaves me from molestation as the spirit of a gentleman 
peepmg out of a ragged coat saves him from insult !" 

During his levity, the more serious noble had been 
studying his unfortunate kinsman, 

"You were out of Spain once — you are tlie type of the 
Corsair who becomes admiral of the free-seamen ! Why 
did you return ?" 

"Madrid lured me !" responded the rover with unex- 
pected pathos — "the Manzaneres, where there is still 
enough water to wash one's shirt and still enough sun- 
shine to dry it. Madrid lured me with the hope that 
whenever I should re-enter its hallowed walls I might 
find no remembrances " 

"Of your follies?" 

"Fie, moralist! — of my creditors! But I was out! 
They are still in ! Creditors die, but have heirs ; their bills 
are like the ravens — ^more and more sharp, and numer- 
ous! Christian and heathen graces, they still remain 
three ; but credit is numberless ! My creditors multiply 
like the blessed, and my interest increases on their paper! 
The children have grown up to look forward to my re- 
turn home as for the fabulous wealthy uncle from the 
golden Americas." 

"Perfectly penniless, eh?" and Jose rubbed his hands 
covertly. 

"The only perfection I can boast !" 

"That is sad ! for Madrid is a city of pleasure — ^very 
expensive!" 

"One can still fuddle at the cost of those whom one 
fuddled when he had means !" 

"Wine will be more dear — the city has doubled the cess 
at the gates !" 



54 Cousins in Contrast. 

"I can gamble for farthing stakes " 



"There is a fresh edict against petty gaming!" 

"Ah, you should know, for the police as well as the 
watch obeyed you, and let you balk them of their prey 
as if you were Keeper of the Lions and could rob them 
of their bones!" 

"I occupy a certain position, true — and that is why ] 
can assure you tippling, dicing, and even sauntering, are 
no longer healthy pursuits in the capital !" 

"Well, you saw a specimen of what is diversion — ^the 
sport of kings on a small scale — fighting " 

He proudly looked round upon the late battlefield. 

"Why, my poor friend, fortune is dead counter to yoa 
there." 

"You do not say so! In what way? Fighting is bora 
with man. To draw the sword comes as naturally to a 
gentleman as drawing breath." 

"Yes ; but, you pagan, you would not know among 
those gypsies, without law or religion, that Carnival week 
commences this very day; and the Royal Council are 
going to issue a proclamation that death shall be the pen- 
alty of crossing swords." 

"Now, then, by St. Andrew's cross ! this goes beyond 
endurance! Would our king ruin the swordsmiths? 
Death for not being killed in a duel ! How the logical 
must laugh at that argument ! The first monarch was a 
successful soldier, says the sage whom we were bored 
with at the college ! And how the royals have degener- 
ated to issue such a stupid pronunciamento ! No duels ! 
Is one to throw away money on the professional blood- 
letters? Unless I am bled regularly I should run amuck 
- — like the Malays — and trace a bloody swath in the first 
concourse of Madrid!" 

"Oh, you must restrain your arm for seven days — just 



Cousins in Contrast. 55 

a littk week while you fast, to cool your blood. You will 
•have the rest of the year to practice homicide." 

"A sennight ! This is hard for one. The Church bids 
me fast and make my blood thin and cold ! The State 
bids me control my hot temper, with which I might be 
comfortable! I must not draw wine or the sword! Well, 
if you are one of the king's council who give him thia 
counsel, I do not congratulate you ! By the way, you 
have not defined yourself. Marquis, I know; but are you 
of the State Council ?" 

"I ? I am the last of whom the king would ask counsel 
in his affairs — of the heart ! I am nobody !" 

"We are at evens ! But I doubt," thought Caesar, du>. 
biously, "a. man who can call off the hounds of the police 
■ — he is a great potentate and worth truckling to, if I 
were a truckler. Bah ! I want nothing of anybody — that 
is, for poor me ! But — ah ! that girl ! — Maritana, who 
Jongs for freedom from the gypsies, from her gilded 
trappings under which she capers for the pence of the 
vulgar and the gold of the upstarts. Now, if I could in- 
duce my cousin to assist her in her commendable desire 
to arise !" 

"Well," said Don Jos6, unable to suppress his jeer, 
although he might require this sword, if not this head, 
"plunge your blade and your poll, to cool them, in the 
(fountain — the municipality is generous of the ice-spring !" 

He pointed laughingly to the public basin, a relic of 
the Moorish rule and providence ; a massive group of 
Oriental lions spouted the clear liquid from their gaping 
mouths and lashed the pool with their tufted tails. 

"With no dwelling, I might as well drown myself! 
Oh, for the week to be slept ofif in one nap, and a good, 
stout quarreler to beard me !" cried Don Czesar, mock- 
bigly, as he joined his hands in this warlike prayer. 



56 Cousins in Contrast. 

His fellow-student looked at him narrowly as he leaned 
on the marble circle and was reflected in the surface, the 
image of despair. 

"Alackaday ! We shall be burying him instead of the 
Carnival !" said he, with pretended grief. 



CHAPTER V. 
DON Cesar's challenge. 

There came to the water fount two persons, deep in 
their own troubles. 

One of them was a youth, stalwart and dingy of com- 
plexion like a gunsmith's apprentice. He was struggling" 
hard, as his quivering under lip showed, to keep back his 
tears. 

His companion was one of those burly Galician peas- 
ants who come to town believing" that the streets are 
paved with gold, but who trudge daily to and fro con- 
veying water to the thirsty, but not without remuneration. 
On the contrary, the water carriers of Spanish cities — 
and such was Senor Pacolo — charge as much as they 
dare for the porterage, and more, when the heat augments 
and the tide runs low. 

As his unfortunate companion needed not money, the 
worthy fellow was profuse with offers of sympathy and 
encouragement. ' 

"Nay, nay, little Master Lazarillo," said he, "do not 
spurn graces — my free offices ! I have learned to bear 
my burdens with quiet, but I uphold you in your re- 
bellion against tyranny. For it is tyranny, since you are 
the armorer's 'prentice and not a soldier bound, to have 
that captain of the Royal Arquebusiers pitch on one so 
lowly !" 

"Friend Pacolo," returned the youth, shaking his hand, 
"let this be our farewell. Sell my goods at your lodgings 
for what will bury me. Your poor comrade who came 
out of the same mountains as you will never lay his head 
under their pines ! Bury me anywhere, but in the coun- 



58 Uon Cesar's Challenge. 

try if you can. I am not ungrateful to you for your 
kindness, and you are sound as a priest in warning me 
from self-murder — the most cowardly of murders! But 
I have but one desire now — it is to die !" 

He made a motion as if to mount the basin edge and 
throw himself into the water. 

"Refrain !" cried Don Caesar, suddenly, on seeing the 
shadow projected across the surface from the lamp at the 
drinking-shop. "How do you know but that I, deprived 
of wine, may stoop to drink of that water?" 

"If you please, sir," intervened the water carrier, "this 
lad wishes to make a hole in the water, which might be 
filled by older and less promising men !" 

"Why, it is a likely youth, and ought not to lag with 
hanging bridle !" commented Jose. "If you have lost 
your master's money box do not throw your life over as 
the stake by which to win it back ! Rather go into the 
gypsy-ward yonder, where you will not have water 
thrown at you any more than the petty pilfering! By our 
Lady ! you might better go for a sailor if you have a lean- 
ing toward the molten crystal over which Cortez and 
Pizarro marched to empire !" 

"If you please, sir, he is bent on dying!" repeated 
Pacolo. 

"Then let him straighten himself on living I Drowning 
is not one of those courses to be taken in a hurry ! Bah ! 
die before you are pricked by your heard coming, and long 
before you can have felt those prickings of remorse! 
Wait till you arrive at my age, and stand between taking 
to water — as a drink! — and being burned with pent-up 
courage — like those frontier towns, which, in Holland, if 
taken by us, are burnt, and if the Dutch find they cannot 
be maintained, are submerged in this vile fluid, water!" 

"He is an armorer's apprentice, my master," continued 
the carrier, hoping that time would cool the youth's ar- 



Don Cesar's Challenge. 59 

dor; "and he ought to shoot himself — if there is anything 
in the saying, 'Hve by a trade, die in the same !' " 

"No truth, friend — or the ropemakers would go up the 
hangman's ladder!" 

"Your honor is right ! Drown ? Marry ! are we frogs 
to think such a passage out of misery ?" 

"You, too, are wise. No, boy, do not drown, in prefer- 
ence to this stable, lovely and flowery earth, in that un- 
stable and muddy element !" moralized Don Caesar. "The 
thought has given me what we scholars call the ague, and 
my late companions, the wanderers, 'the shivery-shakes' — 
coarse, but convincing. You wish for death — you, a 
minor, who cannot be plagued with duns and creditors 1" 

"He is plagued with a cursed mean master," inter- 
rupted Pacolo, "who would not draw you out a pistole 
unless you drew out a pistol on him ! This knave — but 
you tell the gentleman your story, for he might give you 
g'ood advice " 

"It is all he can give at present. But out with it, my 
lad !" He sat on the basin edge and swung his legs. "If 
you have to do with instruments of war, I can be the 
judge, for, lock ye, a gentleman-at-arms is necessarily a 
gentleman of arms. To it !" "" 

"My name, sir, is Lazarillo. I am learning my trade of 
gunsmith, and my master, instead of instructing me in the 
craft, set me to keeping in order the firearms at the royal 
arsenal, which adjoins the prison, while the new arsenal 
is building." 

"Very good — so far, no harm. To furbish up arms is 
part of a good soldier's duties." 

"Well, sir, some one left a window open, and the dew, 
blowing in, the barrels were spotted with rust. The cap- 
tain fell foul of my master in consequence, and he, to 
avoid the tongue-lashing, laid all the blame upon my 



jSo Don Caesar's Challenge. 

shoulders and consented that the old martinet should hav«S 
a dozen lashes laid on me !" 

"He did! I should knock spots out of the old leop- 
ard !" ejaculated Caesar, not in the least judicially. "I 
have not the pleasure of the acquaintance of your estim- 
able employer, but I could give him a leathering !" 

"So I ran out not to receive the lashes!" 

"A dozen lashes, eh?" and the don's shoulders heaved 
at the idea. 

Since his wanderings with the gypsies he had seen 
isv*hat flogging implied in tho'se days for physical argu- 
ments. 

"Oh, it is not the number, sir," continued the boy, al- 
most weeping because of having met sympathy in this 
high quarter. "But I am a Spaniard, a mountaineer, and 
though we can stand suffering, we will not put up with a 
whiplash !" 

"Bravo! my Httle Achilles!" cried Don Csesar, forget- 
iingall about the amateur judgeship, "this is a true sionof 
Spain!" He rose, and, going over to where Don Jos6 
had stood, apart, musing, he took his bent arm familiarly 
and resumed: "Cousin, we two must intercede with this 
militai-y savage!" 

"Alas, my ov/n lieutenant and my master's wife joined 
to plead for me, but the captain said that he would ply 
the scourge with his own hand rather than have the little 
blockhead escape! meaning by blockhead, yours to serve, 
sir !" and Lazarillo clasped his hands to Bazan as assured- 
ly he would not do to the miserable autocrat, 

"Don't be uneasy. We will be your advocate's, noble 
advocates ! Jose, you must teill him under his own nose 
to desist — this is no way to drum up recruits by chastis- 
ing the boys! You, who lord it over the police and the 
watch, I warrant that, though nobody, you can cut the 
comb of this chanticleer 1" 



Don Caesar*s Challenge. 6l 

"You will pardon me," said the marquis, withdrawing 
his arm with softness, like that oiling his voice, "but I 
cannot put captains of the Royal Arquebusiers in my 
pocket! Do not interfere — ^what are a few stripes morQ 
or less to the budding soldier!" 

"It depends upon where they are placed," replied Don 
Caesar, dryly, "for, on the arm, they make a corporal — ^on 
the back, an assassin! — captains have been shot in the 
back of the head for unjustly 'striping' a trooper!" 

"Let him shoot him when the time comes. I mind 
my own business, and do' not soil my fingers!" and Jose 
walked a little way off from the fountain. 

"Ah! after your protestations of good-will, you fall 
away like this water!'' Caesar said this as he indig- 
nantly withdrew his hand from the basin in which he had 
plunged it, as though to wash off the contagion impreg- 
nated by the faithless friend's rich sleeve. 

"You may be banished to the Azores Islands for revolt 
against the king's uniform," observed the criminal police 
chief, as a last word. 

"I would prefer the Nutmeg Islands, so that I might 
spice my wine! but, banish me, if you will! let it be after 
I have remonstrated with this disgrace to this uniform 
if he persists in his inhumanity!" 

As Jose retired to watch at a safe standing, there was 
a clink of arms and a smell of the fuses being lit, with 
which the hand guns were firedi 

At this token of approaching combat, Don Caesar's 
mien absolutely altered. Any traces of the enervating in- 
fluences of the wine cup were blown away. He straight- 
ened himself, and, assuming a gallant attitude, with one 
hand on his tilted sword and the other on his hip, he 
waited for the comers. 

"Get thee behind me, thou little Beelzebub/' said he ten 



62 Don Caesar's Challenge. 

the refugee, "you little guess w'hat a pickle you may; 
have soused me in, before we are through with you!" 

"It is they!" said the boy. "They have pursued me, 
but I Avill not be lashed like a dog!" 

"Peace ; and trust us. We are going to defend you !'* 

"We?" asked Lazari'llo and 'hiis humble friend in a 
breath. 

"Assuredly WE! Don Caesar de Bazan and his Split- 
steel, his good blade !" 

The plaza was deserted. The chains had been 
stretched across the street-heads, opening into the 
square, and the houses had become "blind" by shutters 
going up before the windows and the doors having even 
the wickets sealed. A few lights twinkled, generally in 
the garret windows. Shadows stole away across the 
space as a file of "hawkbushmen" tramped over toward 
the fountain. They were not the civic watch, not the 
armed police, but the royal men-at-arms. They wore 
bufif breeches, thigh-plates and shin-plates, as well as 
cuirasses, which gleamed in the scattered beams. Across 
the steel plate barred the black leather bandolier, con- 
taining the cartridges for the guns, and each carried at 
the side a long coil of whitened rope, being the match 
for igniting the powder in the pans. 

Their helmets were of almond shape, and bore a green 
plume along the crest. This plume denoted that they 
were on service. 

They were headed l^y a grizzled veteran, who'se short- 
cropped hair showed just under the steel cap, gilded to 
distinguish him from the subalterns. This was Captain 
Octavio Herreno, Viscount Aguastintas, who had fretted 
for twelve years at lack of promotion into the palace 
corps, where the regulations were light and the dtities 
formalities. 



Don Cresar's Challenge. 6y 

Don Jose halloaed to his friend, and made a sign for 
him not to use his sword. 

"Oh, hang- the edict ! Still, it is Carnival week — let us 
respect Mother Church, althoug'h I only know one 
prayer: 'Let me never be tired of the only life I have 
ever known.' " 

So he reluctantly released his grip of his sword pom- 
mel and let his hands fall by his sides, where they 
flapped, however, with impatience, like a cock's wings 
iwhen about to crow a challenge. 

Pacolo shrewdly harbored himself with the fountain 
between, and, peering forth betw^een two lions' heads, he 
stared, muttering: 

"I much blunder if this Boabdil of a musketeer will not' 
rue his plucking out little Lazarillo from that gentle- 
man's ward, for, never forgive me! but he will receive 
such a drubbing as the Algerines gave the Emperor 
Karl!" 

"Do not run again!" whispered Bazan to the trembling 
lad; "you wear my colors now! They may crush me as 
between Upper and Lower Andalusia, but till then do 
not budge!" 

In spite of the g^loom, the two or three figures over 
at the water pool were visible to the searchers. They 
marched straightway thither. 

The captain, perked up with his post, did not dream 
of any opposition. He halted his men at the basin, and, 
pointing out the shrinking boy with his gloved hand, 
said, utterly ignoring the others by: 

"Ho! so you dared not go among the gypsies for 
refuge, in spite of your knowing what I promised, and 
that I am a man of my word! It is yo'ur prisoner. Se- 
cure him!" 

The roisterer, dofifing his hat and flouris'hing its broken 
feather in a long-drawn bow, deferentially saluted with 



64 Don Caesar's Challenge. 

an air Which advertised him as a finished cavaiiei, and 
said, in a voice to soften a stone effigy: 

"You will excuse, Captain Don Octavio; I crave a 
moment. Allow me, that is, suffer your servant to inter- 
cede with prelude, oration and peroration, according to 
the humanities, for this trifling young delinquent." 

Disregarding the eloquent suitor, the captain cried, 
angrily, to his arquebusiers: 

"Are you deaf? I said, arrest!" 

The troopers advanced, but their step was slow; they 
recognized in the solitary obstacle not the ex-courtier, 
but the madcap who had sunk to familiarity with thei 
fag-ends of the town. His exploits had all reached the! 
guardroom, not excepting this latest ; indeed, his prow- 
ess in defeating the gang of gamesters had been re- 
counted Hke a page out of Plutarch. 

Lazarillo, more daunted by the fear tliat he had use- 
lessly embroiled his gallant champion fell on his knees, 
iwhich he might not have done on his own account. 

"Mercy!" he cried in a sonorous voice, "micrcy! Be 3 
brave captain, and forgive!" 

"My captain!" said Bazan, with the same suppressed 
tone, "are you in your turn grown dumb — for that 
sprmgald is speaking to you — you, Don Octavio! The 
poor creature is suing for mercy, which a true soldier 
always listens to, if he cannot grant! Mark, I add my 
appeal to his supplication for pardon." 

"Who the deuce are you, scarecrow, Who has not even 
mended your tatters before entering a royal capital! 
But, sirrah, you go back to your duty! Resume th6 
leather-cloth and shine up the armor! And no tears, 
they will only spot the steel, and they cannot soften my 

heart! As for this miserable mummer " for Don 

Cjs'sar was rising in a somewhat threatening attitude^ 
iwhich had caused the soldiers to stop short 



Don Cassar's Challenge. 65 

"That cursed decree!" muttered Bazan, recollecting. 
"Oh, blind mortality, which blusters when but a sheet 
of parchment is the buckler betwixt him and the itching 
eword! If it were not the blessed diabolical week when 
one must not carry out the dictates of humanity !" He 
became calm by a powerful effort. "Captain, my noble 
don, why object to your collecting the lamb into the fold! 
Pretty field where the flock are this kind of war wolf I 
But, let that pass! and let it pass that there shall be no 
ignominous blows, eh? no cuts of the cord, only fit for 
criminals who join the flagellating monks! That boy 
has the heart of a soldier and will make his mark yet I 
How glad you will be to have spared him!" 

"Spared nothing — a flogged soldier takes care not to 
let the enemy see his back," returned the martinet, 
chuckling, like 'a rusty hinge, at his own stern joke. 

"You should pardon!" He caught him by the cloak 
as he whirled around, contemptuously, "You must par- 
don my page!" 

"Hands off! Do not infect me with the reek of the 
glietto!" cried the other, testily and facing the shudder- 
ing, cowering boy, who seemed to be praying. 

"Remember the edict!" hissed Don Jose in his cousin's 
ear, as he glided toward him. "You must bear his 
taunts, too!" 

Caesar shook him off and'took two steps, which placed 
him between soldiers and commander and their object of 
pursuit. 

"You offended me, sir, by turning a deaf ear I You in- 
sult me by diverting your eye when I address you ! You 
are a soldier and by rank a nobleman — so am I ! I no 
longer throw my cloak over this boy as a pleader for the 
general assistance ag-ainst a bully and a butcher, but as 
my page, since I have no doubt he will enter into my 
service 1 Now " 



6^ Don Caesar's Challenge. 

"Your page? You who have not the wherewithal td 
ciothe your back, keep a boy?" 

"Nay, I can keep my back firom being scored by a 
sword cut and my page's from your stirrup strap! I 
h'ave pledged my honor to protect this lad, mind you, 
and I am now imploring or suing for you to forgive and 
release !" 

"What on earth are you going to do?" 

"What I solicit in vain, it is my regular course to com- 
pel !" was the forlorn gentleman's curt and tranquil an- 
swer. 

"There will certainly be a thrashing for the hawk- 
busher!" muttered Pacolo, in his retreat. 

"You are mightily insolent, consort of the banned andl 
exorcised!" 

"Bandy no more words. The decree against dueling 
d'oes not include my correcting a brutal dog who pre- 
sumes upon wearing the royal collar ! In spite of all, 
with death my portion, you must, if truly Don Octavio 
Herrcno, make me the honorable amends !" 

"Defiance from a beggar!" 

"Who would not ask the alms of his life from y<y\i. 
It is I who beggar your nobility of a year ! I am a 
girandee of Spain, and my blade will ennoble yours by its 
touch. I am Don Caesar de Bazan " 

"It is a name trailed in the gutter," returned the cap- 
tain, although sobered. 

"I am, moreover, head of the Counts of Garofa." He 
put on his hat with so lofty an air that it became the 
newest shape in the finest felt and the feather repaired 
its crack and its curl, and he appeared like a favorite of 
the king. 

The Garofas had the signal privilege of wearing their 
hats in the royal presence — that is, were the equal of 
kings. A Garofa used to say : "I and the king 1" 



Don Cesar's Challenge. 67 

I ""It was I who stooped in suing to you, merely a vis- 
count of purchased creation, and by forcing me to apply 
my sword to you in correction is due the misdemeanor of 
infringing the royal decree !" 

"A challenge to a king's officer at the front of his 
men ?" faltered the old soldier, almost frothing with rage. 

"In front of your men, accept, or retire with them in 
shame !" 

"Oh, it is not meet that even you should doubt the 
mettle of the king's officers. If you will follow me 
where we will not have the cathedral walls to shadow us, 
or holy ground to be defiled, I will prove that my man- 
hood is not of yesterday if my letters of nobility are." 

Confident that the Count of Garofa, however degraded 
by association with the lees of the capital, would not 
flinch thus committed, he cried to his men : 

"File ! By single file, march !" and the troop disap- 
p'eared in the court to the south of the great religious 
edifice and were absorbed to the last glitter of steel in 
the intense gloom. 

"Oh, no, you must not waste your life for such as me !" 
cried the cause of this strife. "I would rather return to 
my master and let this browbeating captain wreak his 
spite to the full !" 

"Oh, no, not since you will be my page ! You might, 
if you prefer no change of service, run to that lieutenant 
who would have spared you the shame of a whipping — 
and let him know that there will be a vacancy for his prc>- 
motion before morning !" 

Then nodding to Paoolo, who softly came out of his 
shelter, he confided the youth to him, and, whistling a 
m'arching tune, he plunged into the same mass of murki- 
ness which seemed the entrance to the pit of darkness. 

iAt the same time he saw at the other end of this 



68 Don Cassar*s Challenge. 

passage, wher-e it debouched upon a little square edged 
with young trees, a spread of ruddy light. 

"That is not the moon," said he, striding on, and shiv- 
ering, for his clothes were like lacework and the wind 
was chill, "but the glare of the hearth of the Next Sov- 
ereign ! What an excellent idea, since the loser can pass 
away, with a good glass of wine to start him on the long 
journey, and the winner can drink without fear that he is 
taking his last drop! Dash that edict! 'the last drop)* 
I jest too truly, perchance!" 

He quickened his gait and soon arrived at the famous 
dueling ground. 

The Minor Cathedral square, called familiarly "the 
Dandiprats' walk," was the favorite stalking-ground of 
the "bucks and the deer." It was full of shops, or rathec 
booths, since the building of solid structures was prohib- 
ited on church land, where it would have recalled the 
traffic in the Temple, and citizens and courtiers mingled 
with the odd serenity born of implacable classification. 

As coaches could not get into the inclosure, all were 
on foot and the red heel was knocked against by the 
clumsy bark sandal of the peasant and the trooper's heav^j 
high boot. 

But at night, especially if the moon shone with the full- 
ness of lustre known in that sunny clime, it was the site 
of encounters to decide by force of arms current ques- 
tions. Under the hardened eyes of the persons up at 
the house windows, gallants died as coolly for a ribbon, 
a political question or a family feud. iBy the police clos- 
ing the eye in the Minor plaza, this was the only safe 
place where one could, without interruption, hazard the 
life on a sword point 

Sometimes the idlers would see all the ladies of fame! 
by day on this field of honor, which wias also a court of 
beauty; at night the same lookers-on might see all thfll 



Don Caesar's Challenge. 69" 

gallants watching a duel, not always sing-le but of two or 
three pairs. 

Ais a military man, Captain Octavio was well ac- 
quainted with the spot. 

'It was even said that he did not lose in the purse by 
choosing this rendezvous, since it was a relative of his, 
and an old wardog, too, who had served in the French 
campaigns under his flag, who kept the eating-house with 
the singular title. 

But it was not unreasonable ; it was witty, as wit was 
Judged then. 

This hostel, where there were no beds, since its busiest 
lime was after dark and its gamblers atid carousers came 
not there to sleep, was illumined handsomely ; out of all 
Small windows poured the light, and out of the ground- 
ifloor doorway, large enough to admit a coach, shone the 
tremendous glare from a furnace and an open fire, be- 
fore which the spit revolved. 

All this brightness shot across the square, where the 
jpromenaders wore off the grass, and enabled one to use 
a knife and fork or a sword, as one feasted or fought, 
jvithout wishing for the day. 

The old soldier, having learned to cook the provisions 
stolen by the foragers, since armies were miserably pro- 
visioned, had all the arts at his spoon-end. He had 
Ba:uces which tickled the jaded palate, pies which de- 
lighted the epicures, and, lastly, wines which never paid 
the city dues, but were, they say, brought back in the 
empty bier every time there was a military funeral out of 
the garrison and palace. 

To be sure, the rumor being circulated that the king 
bad more strictly than heretofore prohibited settlement of 
Hifferences between sword wearers with their side com- 
panion, a gloom should have fallen on the Next Sov- 



70 Don Caesar's Challenge 

ereign, but she did not lessen by a jot the triumphanl 
smile with which she was depicted on the signboard. 

This board did not swing on a rod at a posit, for tfie 
wind came down furiously from the north sometimes, 
and mine host would have bitterly regretted a three-bottle 
guest being flattened by the sign. 

It was set in the front over the door of lozenge shape, 
like a funeral panel of a great house. 

"The Next Sovereign," as we should have explained*, 
was simply a portrait of a beauty, not identifiable, but 
woman in the general. Considering that whenever there 
is la king there is a woman in the background, if not by, 
his iside, and that to her are attributed all the acts from 
the throne which incur comment, the sarcasm in present- 
ing her as the ruler in posse was good enough to laugh at. 

But then, those who feasted at the Sovereign were 
easily made to laugh. Always omitting the duelist, who 
never left the ground to enter the tavern. 

As the challenger had surmised, here was where he' 
found his antagonist awaiting him; he had consoled 'him- 
self for losing the apprentke gunsmith by exhausting 
the flagon of wine brought out. He had dismissed his 
troop, we know, but retained a sub-officer and pressed 
into service as a second a civilian acquaintance upon the 
ground, who thanked him for the diversion. 

'"Capital site!" said Don Caesar, critically, as if he had 
not known the spot before. "Over there is a leather- 
bottle maker's stall. It has been found so handy to sew 
up a slash when a bungler has been at work, and did not 
kill his man neatly!" 

This was not very encouraging, but the Captain of 
Arquebusiers was tough. The host nodded to the tat- 
tered nobleman as if he knew him of old, and without 
sending a waiter to get his order, went on his fat legs to 
bring out a bottle of Tetuan wine, which, growing on soil 



Don Cassar's Challenge. 71 

impregnated with magnetic iron, was reckoned to suit 
fighting men. 

"It is the fortifier, my lord," said 'he. "You will pink 
your man in the first bout, if you drink one glass! You 
will pierce him in the second, if you drink two; and if 
you finish the flask, you will finish him!" 

"Halloa!" cried the errant knight, astounded, "he is 
your own officer, and set you up here! You astonish me 
as much as if you presented your bill." 

"Oh, I do not mind the score! You will have your 
rights soon, and your steward will settle your long ac- 
count! A gypsy foretold that!" 

"But," went on Don Caesar, drinking and approving, 
"this does not explain why you should desire me to be 
the better in crossing steel with your old captain?" 

"Well, he owes me considerable, and I understand that 
he will pay tavern bills while he lives!" 

"Oh, the family have 'his estate under their control, 
poor infant!" sighed the broken noble. "After all, he 
may be set free by my boring him in the midriff!" 

Between proven swordsmen, the preliminaries were 
brief. 

A sort of ring was formed of the spectators. The sec- 
onds planted their men, for Csesar's reputation had 
promptly produced two adherents, especially as the land- 
lord promised to regale them, and the blades were soon 
grating in that first testing which precedes all scientific 
combats. 

The Arquebusier Captain was redoubtable and famous 
in the capital and all his garrison towns for his feats. 

But varied as had been his experiences, they were as 
an A B C book to the lexicon of private warfare in which 
our hero was as proficient. Consider that it is given to 
few in a short lifetime to have been conspicuous at court, 
prisoner with the Algerine corsairs, and participant in 



72 Don Cesar's Challenge. 

those medleys when gypsies, smugglers, bandit* and the 
scum of the cities intermingled and employed without 
any rules weapons so diverse as the dagger, the knife 
and the stiletto. It may be stated that almost every 
province of Spain boasted a brand of knife, and each 
knife had its school of fence proper to it. In all of these, 
by actual encounter, Don Caesar had learned lessons. 
W'hile not fitting him for handling the gentleman's arm, 
it gave him suppleness of wrist, quickness in defense, and 
rapidity of the thought to direct the thrust which sadly 
nonpulsed the arquebusier. 

In the first bout, his sword was detached from his 
grasp by a trick more familiar to wielders of the scimetar 
than the long sword, but it succeeded. The captain pro- 
tested a mishap, alleging that he had slipped in the 
"maybutter," a playful name for a flowering plant ; he 
was allowed to repeat the charge. This time Don Caesar 
received him with a ward and a reply lunge out of the 
old French school, when victory was attained by poking 
as with a spear. The blade entered the upper sword-arm, 
and would have penetrated the chest to boot, but the 
don was not persistent; he called out "blood!" and the 
seconds agreed that he ought to cease then, as their man 
was unable to continue the conflict. But the obstinate 
captain, desiring to continue with a change of hand, Don 
Caesar hughingly assented, saying that he was ambidex- 
ter, and that his antagonist would lose nothing. 

But the seconds would not assent. They nobly re- 
garded honor as satisfied, and threatened to charge the 
captain if he did not put up his blade. 

It was then inquired, according to usage, if anything in 
the course of the sword play — pretty play ! — 'had offended 
"the witnesses." It was perfectly in the rules for ihem 
to carry on the quarrel. But the odor from the roasts 
was so appetizing that they were nearly drowned by the 



Don Cassafs Challenge. 7} 

water in their mouths, and there was no blood in their 
eyes. 

There was more than a little doubt that they would 
have supper, as in duty bound, out of either the prin- 
cipals, but the host solved that by pointing to a table 
spread by the doorway, where the waiters began to bring 
dishes, platters and vessels, proclaiming a hearty festival. 

"In carnival?" said Caesar, as if he had qualms. 

"Did you pick up the tenets in the gypsy quarter?" 
ventured the 'host. "Know that I have received three 
wounds in the Vv^ars with the Turks — so that I am a tried 
and true Christian. You shall have fish, and eggs, and 
herbs, and the wine is water of the river Jordan !" 

Unfortunately, there was not given time to verify the 
host's assertion of not sinning against the ecclesiastical 
mandates, for, just as the party were seated comfortably, 
the only blot to the jollity being the arquebusier's ban- 
daged arm, a pale-faced neighbor of the Next Sovereign 
rushing up to the host, in his nightcap and bed-wrapper, 
stuttering m alaim: 

"My racketty boy, who did not come in before we 
locked the door, climbed in at my window and said that 
there is an edict against dueling!" 

"So there is," said the landlord, with an innocent face. 
"I had the proclamation on a printed sheet to be stuck 
up on my door lintel — an edict, bless my soul!" 

"Forbidding it, with the capital penalty!" 

"A fig!" cried the captain, whose first glass of wi — 'that 
is, Jordan water — had restored the vitality lost through 
his cut. "I am authorized to bear arms, in and out of 
Carnival! The king's ofiEicer can fight at all seasons, that 
is what he is sworn in to do!" 

"But. Don Caesar!" said the host, "he is not the king's 
officer!" 

"Ensign of the Devil's Own, rather!" 



74 Don Caesar's Challenge. 

"And you, gentlemen, the seconds, what the law calls 
aids and no-betters ! Oh, haste into the church for sanc- 
tuary!" 

"All the sooner, as I hear the patrol! See their torches 
by the church!" 

There was great confusion; all rose. 

Half an hour afterward, when Don Jose, afraid hith- 
erto to pass down in the dark to the still-Iig'hted square, 
reached it at the heels of the watch, he hastened to in- 
quire about his cousin. 

The tale was straight. 

At the close of the duel, when the parties were wash- 
ing away the stain of defeat on one side, and toasting the 
glory on the other, the edict was called to mind. The 
captain allowed his friends to take him into the hospital 
adjacent to the cathediral, which was thus a refuge not to 
be invaded by the civic and military arms. As for the 
friend of the outcasts, who had proven to be an acconir 
plished swordsman and a noble of the realm, he had for- 
bidden his friends to interfere, and had let himself be 
conveyed into the city tower, where he would probably 
remain until led out for execution. Trial was not neces- 
sary for an infraction of the royal mandates. 

"Oh, I knew," muttered the plotter, "that he would not 
fall by the sword; he is such an adept! But to be 
snatched away when I might make use of him? Con- 
demned to death — ah, I think I see my way to rise, or, 
at least, to raise my puppet by the rope which hangs 
him!" 

Joyously he resisted the host's entreaty for him to 
taste his blessed water from the Jordan, and hurried away 
from the square. 



CHAPTER V:i. 

ON another's MISSION". 

Don Jose left the one bright spot in slumberous Madrid 
and returned to the great square. 

He stood in a corner, and perceived a solitary figure 
crossing the plaza. He noted that when accosted by his 
men in ambush the stranger replied with a potent pass- 
word, for they let him pass as readily as they had their 
superior. 

Pricked by this mystery, a little jealous that another had 
his might, he came forth and threw himself in the way. 

A light strayed from a flickering lamp at a devotional 
post. 

"The mischief! It is our old friend, the Marquis of 
Castello-Rotondo ! Why, Master of the Lapdogs, what 
do you out of doors at this untimely hour? You will catch 
your death of cold, and we shall have to go into half- 
mourning 1" 

"Oh, my dear Don Jose ! believe me that I am not prowl- 
ing the filthy streets by my own prompting ! It is, between 
ourselves, our good queen's orders." 

"I know that the king's writ runs day and night, but the 
queen's wishes? — since when have they had the proviso: 
'Posthaste and no stoppages?' " 

I, "Since she has gone crazy — save the mark ! — over this 
gypsy v/itch who has cozened her into second childhood ! 
She wakes up and sends a token to her that she is to be 
by her side early in the morning." 

"Oh, not Maritana?" 

"There is none other! Surely, she is incomparable! 



76 On Another's Mission. 

But the queen ought not to have the failings of uncrowned 
mortals." 

"I must always agree with your lordship's sense. But 
why seek such a wild girl as a gypsy in a city ditch by 
night? As well hunt a black rabbit with a ferret having 
no lantern round its neck." 

"Oh, I can find her," replied the old nobleman, with a 
fatuous smile ; "I am free of the ghetto." 

"The devil you are ! Impossible ! Why, you know my 
rank and its power over the unruly — ^but I would not ven- 
ture down into that sink of iniquity with my badge of 
office. No, the scum would throttle me and run away 
with the collar to pledge it !" 

"Oh, I dare say they are capable of it ; but, I repeat, I 
am free of the family !" 

"Is it purchasable with money, friend?" 

"I took the first steps thereby. I have been a very good 
friend to the Bohemian, first on my own estate in the 
province of Murcia, where they are allowed to camp, cut 
wood for firing and poach a little." 

"Well, for the rarity of such leniency, I do not doub? 
that they might be grateful danglers on your excellency's 
kindness." 

"It was a good recommendation when I came to town, 
too!" 

"It saved your pocket from being picked ?" 

"My throat from being cut ! — for these Zingari are no 
sticklers !" 

"But apart from the natural softness of your head — I 
mean your heart — marquis," continued the police head, 
thinking that even in this stupid sycophant there might be 
reason for chatting with him, "how do you bind these 
masterless rogues to be decorous?" 

"I pay several annuities to prosecute some searches of 
mine 1" 



On Another's Mission. 77 

"Oho! You do not interfere with the police preroga- 
tive of restoring stolen property, do you? It would go 
hard with me to have to arrest your excellency !" 

"Tut, tut ! The property I seek is live stock. In a word, 
I have been seeking for over fifteen weary years a child." 

"A child ! Oh, my poor friend I" 

"As a father !" 

"I excuse your ^blushes " 

'flushes, sir? — tears !" and the old man wiped his eyes 
showily. "You may know that when I was young I was a 
testy, choleric tomfool I" 

*T could guess that !" 

"Besides my ancestral estate there was a large sum in 
gold, derived from trading with the East, which was to 
accrue to me if I became father of an heir." 

"Oh, a son ?" 

"Exactly. And we had a daughter !" 

"What a slip I" 

"Yes, a fair slip of a girl — hang my ill-fortune and 
hers ! for I was so enraged, wanting money terribly at the 
nick to advance me at court, that I put the deceptive imp 
from us !" 

"Unnatural parent! Ugolino!" and he tapped him on 
the shoulder as if arresting him. 

Tlie dotard cackled. 

"Or rather, I talked of putting the cliild out of the 
iSATorld!" 

"Horrible!" 

"This alarmed my wife, who thought that I was mad- 
dened beyond control! She conferred with her confi- 
dential maid, and the two formed a counter plot. They 
hired some vag-abonds to take the child out over the 
fcalcony and across the moat in the midnight!" 

"But, being a make-believe " 

. "Unfortunately, the rogues did their task completely. 



78 On Another's Mission. 

They carried away the babe, and did it so cleverly thaf 
their traces were entirely lost!" 

"This is harrowing!" 

"All we learned was that my blundering lady had en- 
trusted our darling to gypsies — things of no country^ 
who are here to-day and " 

"In the jail to-morrow!" 

"At all events, there is no line which we could follow. 
At last my wife was advised to apply to the Duke of 
Egypt '■" 

"The pretended king of these homeless wanderefs, 
just so!" 

"He offered his aid and charged so much for his 
acolytes I It has cost me a pretty penny, especially when 
I fail to be advanced lucratively at court " 

"Oh, that may be mended!" 

"Thank you, my lord — I would you had the power to 
mend my lacerated heart !" 

"Our lady! lacerated, w'hen you proposed the suppres- 
sion of the heiress because she was not the heir!" 

"Oh, that was my joke — it is the kidnapers who took it 
too deeply in earnest! But they are nearing the goal!" 

"How — ^tell me! How do you feel so much eagerness 
to recover what was a detriment years ago ?" 

"Because the dolt of an attorney to whom was con- 
fided the papers of my relative, did not inform me till he 
died, a few years ago, that a second testament amended 
the former and left the vast sum to my offspring what- 
ever the sex!" 

"So, no)w I understand the revival of affection! I wish 
you success with your hirelings." 

"Then, if you will let me pass " 

"But you said that you visited them by order of the 
queen?" 



On Another's Mission. 79 

"I am trying to kill — that is, catch two birds with the! 
saimelure!" j 

"Let me see; the queen is the patroness of that 
dancer — pride of their tribe?" 

"She begs her to come live in the palace beside her!" 

"She refu'sed! She is a stone! But to penetrate the 
accursed ward — you must be furnished with a more 
powerful open-sesame than the queen's name!" 

"It is true ; this scarf makes all doors open and all win- 
dows turn! The gypsies sleep in the open air, but you 
understand the figure!" 

"Let me see that scarf!" The old marquis drew a 
curious Indian fabric from his bosom, and the other ex- 
amined it as well as he could in the poor light. It was 
embroidered with Arabic letters, perhaps a prayer, but 
it looked what they called "magical." Don Jose shiv- 
ered a little, and, without letting the noble perceive it, 
kissed the muslin. 

"It is Maritana's," he said. 

"Yes, and that is why I can, under its shelter, pierce 
to the King of the Gitanos' presence. Poor king — his 
throne an empty wine-cask, his sceptre a seaman's pipe, 
and his cup a pewter pot." 

"Listen," said Jose, gravely, retaining the scarf. "My] 
police inform me that there has been uncommon! 
agitation in this region of blackness since a fight of 
gamesters over their spoil. The flame of riot spreads, and 
there has been another 'ruffling,' from which a captain of 
the guards lies bleeding in the hospital; so, as your life 
is pre'cious to your lost child — 'and the royal lapdogs — > 
I would beg to relieve you of your mission this time. 
Let one of my men replace you!" 

"Well, this is kind, but " 

"Hie home and resume your broken rest. In the 
morning tell the queen that you fearlessly executed your 



8o On Another's Mission. 

errand, and that Maritana, notified of her wish, will have 
the honor to present herself at the appointed hour!" 

"Good; but if she should not come?" 

"What is that to your lordship? It will be another of 
her tantrums! But I believe you may confidently as- 
severate that she will be at th3 queen's feet a suppHant 
for some favor " 

"Which her majesty will be only too glad to meet. 'I 
never saw one woman more fond of another." 

"Go! If my police accost you, say 'Josephus' — that 
will pass!" 

The instant that the plotter was left alone, he set to 
laughing, noiselessly, and crushed up the scarf In his 
hands against his beating breast. 

"Why, Fortune is surely my friend!" said he. "It is I 
who will venture into the lair of his grace of Egypt. The 
knowledge I gain of their mode of life may be useful to 
the police minister, as the interview with Maritana will 
advantage the future prime minister." 

At the ingress to the forbidden region he wavered. 
It was fairly quiet now, since the vvassailers had been 
stupefied by their potions and were wearied by their long 
tramps for bread and filching during the day. 

There was no artificial lights, only the starlight and 
the vague lustre of a rising moon. The long and nar- 
row court which was the ghetto's main street, was en- 
cumbered with peddlers' packs, fishmongers' carts and 
fruit stalls, while the owners, strewn about as if over- 
thrown by a gale, reposed at random. The repose was 
fitful, and there was a continual murmur mingled withi 
the snoring. 

Don Jose would have refrained from risking himself 
among the slumberers, who would perhaps spring up 
and knife him before he could explain how he cam^e to 



On Another's Mission. 8i 

step upon them, but he spied several figures stealing 
about in the mass, like watchers. 

Emboldened a little, he thrust himself into the squalid 
passage and groped his way. He did not stoop or skulk, 
but designedly made himself prominent. Immediately 
one of the wakeful came toward him and brandished a 
cudgel. 

'He hastened to display the scarf and utter the watch- 
?word of the marquis: 

"Castillo-Rotondo — from the queen to Maritana!" 

Both acted like a charm; not only did the challenger 
bo'w, but silently offered his escort. Thus he was 
piloted unimpeded to the middle of the alley, where the 
razed foundation of a once-noble mansion afforded shel- 
ter to the vagrants in case of a thunderstorm. 

As there was no ceiling to the large basement, the 
gypsies had made tents of old sailcloth and those tarred 
sheets used by farmers to preserve cut grass until carted 
into mows. 

In one of these tents, occupied by herself alone, the 
visitor was glad to see the object of his quest. 

On his waving the scarf, Maritana rose from sitting on 
a stool, and advanced to receive him. But, perceiving 
that he, in the prime of life, bore mo resemblance to the 
old noble, she stopped and exclaimed: 

"From her gracious majesty? No, you' are not the 
usual messenger!" 

"I am as good," returned Don Jose, confidently and 
breathing more freely at noticing that nobody questioned 
his presence or, indeed, intruded on the girl's privacy. 
"You remember me, of course? Yet, I think that I 
cooled a warmth on your cheeks — checked the flow of 
pleasant thoughts which prevented you sleeping — per- 
haps they were as delightful as any dreams which might 
have arisen during your rest!" 



82 On Another's Mission. 

"The name of the queen brings smiles to my cheek, 
sir." 

"Yes, you may consider yourself rich in her favor. 
Rely on her — confide in me, whom she honors with her 
trust, and ere long the most dazzling of the court beau- 
ties will be eclipsed by your splendor." 

Her eyes flashed, but instantly repelling the picture his 
words conjured up, she firmly said: 

"I am not going to listen to such 'flummery!' I dare 
not! My brothers here would stab me to the death if 
they thought I was to be allured from their midst — my 
sisters would rend me to shreds if they saw me forsaking 
them to live in your palace! I do not dispute that my 
longings are for an easier, a less worrying life, but I was- 
born to it; I have lived it and I must, I suppose, die 
in it!" 

"Never! Does the pearl pray not to be drawn up out 
■of the mud; the diamond that it shall evermore remain in 
the casing of worthless rock ? Trust to your aspirations 
— to the queen — to him who beseeches you to rise; — ito 
try your wings." 

"They will not carry me far or high in golden bands! 
Oh, yoM cannot deceive me with glozing speech! My 
roving life has taught me truths above my years! These, 
my eyes, have seen the plaything of the munificent be- 
come the broken doll in the dust next day! No, no, I 
should be a poor fortune-teller if I did not foresee my 
destiny!" 

"You do not beh'eve your own prophecies!" declared 
the marquis, energetically. "You may gull the fools 
who bribe you to promise them the boons they do not 

deserve, but you know that you are " he lowered his 

voice, for one must not fling at the ho'sts on their own 
hearth, "you are cheats! Now, I will show you that I 
learned the black arts as well as the spotless ones at my 



On Another's Mission. 83 

university — ^the Moors left their hidden lore there, my 
gentle maid. That tells me that you fail to> tell the truth 
'because you are not a daughter of the stars " 

"Ah!" 

"I will show my skill — unerring, studied, to be der 
pended upon. Give me your hand." 

She obeyed him, somewhat impressed by his gravity 
and fervency. 

He dandled it adoringly. He smoothed it, pretended 
to examine the palm, and cried, as if inspired; 

"It is clear! You will rise out of the fog and miasma 
of this bog; from among these lepers and toads, to be 
among the wearers of crowns — or, at least, the coronet!" 

"Crowns — coronets!" she murmured, and he felt her 
hand start with a bounding of her heart. 

"You will become a peeress of the reallm!" said he, 
^earnestly, watching the effect of his pledge. 

"A peeress?" 

"Countess, marchioness — some such rank!" 

She shook her head; she withdrew her hand, 'Whfdi 
turned cold. 

"You mislead as we do; a gypsy, a peeress? a pagan, a 
disbeliever, blessed by the bishops as a countess? You 
are a dreamer or a deceiver! The queen did not send 
you to play such tricks!" 

"The queen sent me to buoy up your sou'l, to feed your 
flame, to encourage you in your hopes!" said the tempter, 
energetically, to back his own falsity. "She would not 
Ihold out to you a mockery, but an honorable elevation. 
Become a Christian by the rites, and you will be a coun- 
tess with the Church's benediction!" 

"The queen could do this, no doubt!" said Maritana, 
faltering. 

"And I !" proudly added the noble. "You see you do 
not guess my position or you would not doubt that here 



84 On Another's Mission. 

speaks a potent friend. Yea, I can realize all the ex- 
pectations you hlarbor and which I have multiplied'. 
What is wanted to make you a countess ?" 

"Too many needs ! First, I should require noble 
birth!" 

"Oh, we will arrange that !" said he, lightly. "I hinted 
at that!" 

"My parents, found as you say, would Wave to bo 
prince and princess, I suppose?" 

"We will provide the aristocratic parents," returned 
the marquis, confidently. 

"Or I should be raised to the dignity by marriage " 

"That is a good way !" approved Jose, smiling pa- 
ternally. 

"To find a count?" said she, meditating. 

"Do not look afar when you have one under your 
hand!" 

"You! you are a count?" 

"Oh, better than that, but — hodd! how happy! One 
would not seek in a gypsy camp for a true peer of Spain, 
but poverty, waste and recklessness makes a man fellow 
with the lowest !" 

"Oh, you speak of Don Caesar de Bazan — ^poor gal- 
lant !" 

"Poor? A man with his title cannot be poor if he brings 
his hand to the rig-ht market ! With that hand he can 
lift any of his present companions to his level! A ruined 
spendthrift, his losses can be repaired — his noble lineage 
will replace him in his seat!" 

"I should like him to be restored, sir," said the girl, 
sympathetically, "for he is indeed noble — he has saved 
me from insults worse than death! I owe him much! 
'He has taught me what a gentleman is like!" 

"He shall place you w'here you shall learn what a lady 



On Another's Mission. 85 

'Hoes ! In a word, I am not only messenger of our queen, 
Ijut intermediary of my cousin, Caesar ! He loves you !" 

"Don Caesar loves me?" 

Jose shuddered: he saw that he had"chanced on a fact 
•which went beyond his wishes. This girl loved the wild- 
ling, and he was espousing the cousin whom he detested 
at heart, to the woman who had enthralled him more 
than he cared to avow. 

*lt is he who loves me! it is for me that he has dwelt 
^with us, liars, thieves, blood-spillers ? Ah, he must love, 
to suffer their lazar-house, as you see it, for his abode, 
their infectious oomipany for society, their fate, perad ven- 
ture, to become his own ! I see, I see ! It is not misery 
which dragged him down an-d held him in the kennel — 
it is love — love for me !'' 

"I see that you make it an easy task for his advocate !" 

"His advocate ?" 

"Oh, my cousin is so timid — in m'atters of love ! I am 
sure that, married to the woman of his choice, he will no 
longer rove — that the family will be content with him, 
thus happily settled down, and as they restore him the 
sway over his fettered estates, I will restore him his place 
at court !" 

"How good you are ! Have you the power ?" 

**My lady the countess in fiituro! you are doing the 
honor to confer with Don Jose de Sanlarem, marquis 
and police minister to the king, his favorite minister! 
and on passing good terms likewise with the queen, your 
patroness 1" 

Maritana bov/ed her head: the moon shone into the 
dirty passage and a stray reflected ray encircled her fair 
brow with an aureole. 

"Look !" said the police chief, holding up a coquettish 
Venetian handglass which dangled from her 'girdle, "th« 



86 On Another's Mission. 

countess is crowned! Dream no more! you 'have n!ot 
leaned on pihantoms I" 

"No, no! his proud family will not love me because 
he does. They will not welcome me any more than the 
court ! not even king and queen — not your might, how- 
ever enviable, can introduce the daughter of nothing — 
who will be a countess but by the count's grace!" 

"You forget half my promise — ^you shall have noble 
parents to answer for you ! They mig^ht not have stood 
sponsors at your christening — ^though much may be said 
on that head! — ^but they will reply for you at the bridal 
altar!" 

Maritana's face shone with bliss. 

"Can you leave here 'as freely as I was admitted to 
you?" he questioned in a guarded voice, 

"Certainly! who would dare detain me? We are free, 
we gypsies !" 

"Well, freedom's daughter," said he, gayly, holding out 
his 'hand as if to lead her into the dance, "let me con- 
duct you to wear fetters of gold and silk — ^but they will 
set light — brought to you, by lover, king and queen !" 

The girl caught up a mantle, draped herself while tak- 
ing the first step, and accompanied her guide out of the 
vile suburb, believing that she would never enter it again. 

Light was 'her heart, though filled with happiness, but 
it was not so light as her companion's. He was already 
tasting a triumph. 



CHAPTER VII. 

AWAITING THE GALLOWS. 

The city authorities, too often reproached for letting' 
the Jewry be the eyesore of Madrid', saw in the prisoner, 
Don Caesar, a type of the spendthrifts who presented a bad 
example and fortified the rabble by their having a noble 
among them, would no doubt have dealt harshly with 
their catch. Unfortunately for their zeal, a special or- 
der from the council removed the Count of Garofa from 
their jurisdiction on the ground that he could appeal to 
a tribunal of 'his peers, and he was transferred from the 
city prison to the House of Correction, one of a castel- 
lated group of buildings, together with which was the 
semi-private residence of the police lieutenant. 

But the hapless adventurer had gained nothing much 
by the removal. A court of high justices, with whose 
degree the reduced peer could find no fault, heard the 
deposition by the midnight oil and, conferring merely for 
form's sake, decided that the king's decree was exclusive 
of mercy. Don Cjesar de Bazan, Count of Garofa, etc., 
was returned to his cell, condemned to die tlie death of 
felons, all within an hour. 

"To a fast liver, a fast death, all in the Fast time !" cried 
the incorrigible jester. 

Alas ! the jailers were dull clods, the rust and dust had 
stopped up their ears; they were such stiff and stem 
audience that the gallant, accustomed to bad society 
rather than none, was rejoiced no little by a visitor w(b^ 
came to stay a lifetime — his ! 

"Lazarillo?" cried he. 

"It is I, my lord." 

**A fellow-prisoner ?" 



88 Awaiting the Gallows. 

"You forget — I was appointed your page, my lord! 
In that capacity I sued the corregidor to let me s'hare 
your last hour " 

"You are exact as a clock — it is an hour! I thank 
the corregidor, since he permitted this boon !'' 

"Yes, he said that you might require me, since I could 
write." 

"A sorry accomplishment 1 If, when I was implored to 
set my name to the back of a 'kite' — that is, a note whidh 
flies so high that it goes out of sight — I had been able 
to say: I cannot write, I should have saved ten per 
centum of my loose cash! You are grateful and the 
prison governor is kind 1" 

"Perhaps not so kind," said Lazarillo, roguishly. 

"How is that ?" 

"He hinted that if I could inspire such confidence in 
you that you would tell where you had buried your 
share of the plunder which your friends, the gypsiesi, 
must have gained over the usual haul by your skillful 
planning and leadership in their pillaging, cloak-snatch- 
ing and purse-cutting, why, he would go bail for me for 
quitting my prenticeship and give me a tithe of the sums, 
recovered." 

"So, so, it was time that I quitted this scurrilous world ! 
To believe that a Garofa drinks with thieves only 'to 
thieve with them, when he wants the cup replenished! 
And I signed the petition in my heyday for that rascal 
to become corregidor! If ever I have a day to spare, I 
would call on him with a cane and correct the corrector !" 

"A day to spare," repeated the boy, looking out ol 
the window at the great clock in the courtyard gilded by 
the rising sun. "It is less than two of the twenty-four 
that you can call your own, poor master !" 

"Almost two hours," yawned Don Caesar, sinkinig 
back in the armless wooden chair, "I shall chdat the 



Awaiting the Gallows. 89 

hangman by dying bored to death in ten of such minutes. 
How do those life prisoners beguile the time?" 

"No experience, sir," said Lazarillo, making the tour 
of the apartment, which was tolerable and the best that 
they could give a peer. 

"Boy, if you were a man and you had scant two hours 
to while away, how would you wear them out? — heighol" 

''Ay de mi!" responded Lazarillo, piously, "if I were 
your lordship, I would pass them in turning over the 
errors of my misspent career !" 

"You would ! 'Out of the mouths of babes comes wis- 
dom !' Recall my errors in a couple of hours ! Balder- 
dash ! You are forgiven for being ignorant of my ca- 
reer! .Sum up my past errors — no, youth; no, there is 
not sufficient time to head the chapters! Let me see, 
as you boast of your clerkship — suppose I let you draw 
up my will ! Oh, you need not ring for a ream of paper 
and a quart of ink, to say nothing of a sheaf of quills — ■ 
my estate will not take more than a line ! No, that would 
not take up the two hours !" 

Lazarillo was cut to the heart by the thoughtlessness 
and jocularity. He fell on his knee to the speaker and 
took his hand, saying, piteously :. 

"Good, my master; make peace with the Church!" 
"Oh, I am easy on the point of the steeple ! Never did 
I eat of a stolen porker but I dropped a coin in the beg- 
ging-box for St. Anthony, because it was his pig, and to 
St. Matthew because 'he was a publican !" 

"My lord," sobbed the boy, "I am tlie cause of this 
clipping of your wings — you are going to give up your 
life for poor little me ! Tell me, is there no deed in my 
capacity by which I can testify to my regret and my 
thankfulness ?" 

In his excitement, he caught the other by the dingy, 
raveled ruffle. 



90 Awaiting the Gallows. 

"Why, yes, you can oblige me extremelj' — ^by showing^ 
a little more regard for my Mechlin lace! See ! you have 
torn it so that the dainty deathsman, rejecting it as his 
perquisite, will scornfully cast it aside to his assistant!" 

"What a mishap ! Have you, a noble of the realm, no 
one to intercede for you? no one who can speak face to 
face with our lord the king? Are all to act like heirs — • 
who wish you out of their way?" 

"Don't harrow me by talking of heirs ! If I had heirs, 
and being thirsty, they went down into my castle cellar, 
by Silenus 1 they would have to suck the staves, for 
sorry a drop have I left in one of them !" He smacked his 
lips like cracking a coach-whip, 

"Will no one plead for you ?" 

"Wait — only it would be too late ! But perhaps already 
the movement in my favor is being made !" 

"What movement?" 

"Oh, I see — on the mental mirror, of course — a. long 
and multitudinous procession, venerable old men, with 
tears in their gummy eyes, with scrips full of protested 
paper, with bills a yard long, hastening out to the palace, 
throwing themselves, like Orientals, in the path of the 
royal coach and crying out in voices to crack the panels : 

" 'Sire, mercy ! Life for Don Caesar, Count of Garofa !' " 

"Oh, you have a few friends who will do this?" 

"Hum! I do not say yea to 'friends,' but creditors? 
creditors! my boy, who see, with my kicking away the 
ladder, the last tie removed which attached me to their 
files and ledgers !" 

"But you have noble friends, exalted companions?" 

"The last of my friends was that host of the Next Sov- 
ereign, who chalked up the cost of the supper with which 
I treated the associates in my last duel ! And my last 
knightly companions were the Caballeros of the Hempen 
Collar of St. Nick ! I do not malign them — I dare say they 



Awaiting the Gallows. 91 

would like to call, but there are reasons, which delicate 
susceptibilities will appreciate, preventing them knocking 
at a prison door. They might be recognized, they might, 
dear little Lazarillo, as still owing a part of a term of 
residence herein ! I forgive them ! Friends — friends ?" 
He sang lustily, without a sad note: 

"King Pandion is dead, dead, dead! 
All his friends are lapped in lead!" 

**To die alone !" sobbed the boy, muffling his face in his 
flowing sleeve. 

"Oh, we are a family of sensitiveness, the Garofas. 
When my ancestors rode over the battlefield they used to 
exterminate the Moors — they could not bear to see them 
linger in pain ! They were caused such infinite dolor when 
they were sued to pay a dollar that they put off the pay- 
ment to the Judgment Day ! They could not bear to sec 
me in these dumps — so they stay away, out of pure ten- 
derness !" 

The door had been opened during this pathetic lament. 
A man was ushered in ceremoniously by a head warder, 
and he and the turnkey saluted as they withdrew. The 
visitor wore a short cloak, and on lifting up the front of 
his wide hat he disclosed well-known features. 

"You forget me, who does not stay away!" said this 
newcomer. 

Caesar had heard the door close and the lock again grat- 
ing under the key. He rose and returned the salute. 

"If it is not my cousin, then I am in a vision !" said he, 
with insulting surprise. 

Tlie page retired, unnoticed, into the recess where the 
bed stood amid hangings. He knelt and prayed. 

"You wrong me, cousin, by this amaze !" said Jose, re- 
proachfully. "Have I not always been your friend ? You 
do not know that since I became chief of his majesty's 



92 Awaiting the Gallows. 

police I removed the official records which would have 
paraded the disgrace of the Garofas to posterity ! Come, 
do I not prove my sincerity by coming to you when you 
have committed a crime in the teeth of the royal man- 
dates?" 

"If you had called on me at the city prison and got them 
to treat me as became my rank, it would be a point in your 
favor !" 

"I was doing better than that. I obtained your transfer 
to this jail — a state's prison, and imposing no stigma !" 

"By the black goat of my friends, the Gitanos ! This is 
a boon ! Why, the other, rotten, dilapidated, could have 
been stormed by the vagabonds and I rescued, while this 
old fort, where a regiment is in barracks, is stout enough 
to be irresistible ! I thank you for nothing, cousin !" 

"There must be something I can do?" 

*'WeIl, let your sympathy be manifested by hurrying on 
my execution !" 

"Hurrying it on!" ejaculated Jose, astounded, while a 
broken-hearted sob came from the praying boy. 

"To be sure ! That cursed cider at the city lockup gave 
me a toothache, and there is no such sovereign specific to 
stop a jum.ping pang as the tightening of a halter." 

"Ah, it is there that I may be in time to serve you." 

He looked at his huge box of a watch and shook his 
head. 

"Our clock says one and a quarter hours!" said the 
profligate, coolly. "You see that the reproach was unde- 
.served that I was a thief of time ! I like to be exact when 
life is so short !" 

"It may be lengthened in your case, so that we may 
understand each other." 

He took a stool vv^hich the boy had used and faced his 
relative calmly, though he felt that the negotiation would 
be arduous with such a flippant debater. 



Awaiting the Gallows. 9} 

"My time, my lord, is all my own — and hence, all your 
own !" observed Caesar, with excruciating politeness. "You 
will overlook my offering- no whet over this possibly dry 
talk, for, in fact, the steward has gone away with the cup- 
board key — in short, we are at the beck of the servants 
here. There is too much care — lock and key !" 

"Don Caesar, what would be your dying request, pro- 
vided that I had in my power to grant it ?" 

"Don Jose, my dying request would logically be to live 
longer !" 

"After the royal decision that the king will listen to no 
plea for mercy for controvening his express injunction, 
that I cannot engage. But I swear, as the king's premier 

"Hallo ! have you got your leg up ? Whew ! what an 
honor to the Santarems, who are, after all, subsidiary 
Garofas ! But, mark you ! the premiership is a skittish 
horse to ride. Mind you do not get thrown in putting it 
through the preliminary canter!" 

"Let me alone for that ; I am not so weak a jockey. But 
as the prime minister, and as your friend and kinsman, 
you may have anything you state, always excepting the 
life." 

"A Santarem a premier! Oh, that I had accepted the 
proposal of my friend the king of the Eg}^ptians to be bis 
right-hand man ! Two prime ministers in our families ! 
What honors !" 

"Your desire!" 

"How awkward, for I do not want anything so much as 
what T am about to lose — my life !" 

"Nothing else — no acquaintance, no little light-of-love" 
—earnestly — "no dependent " 

A blubbering from the alcove reminded Don Caesar of 
his volunteer page. 

"By the dog which died, recognizing the old Ulysses !" 



94 Awaiting the Gallows. 

cried he; "you hit it! There is an attache who clinefs to 
me like the cat following a sprig of catm'nt ! I should like 
to do something for my footboy, who is likely to be the 
world's football unless he is coated with leather !" 

"That boy? It was owing to him that you are in the 
present quandary. You owe him — little." 

"As he had served without pay, it is meet that I should 
leave him a pension — out of your estate !" 

"Cousin, this is a trifle. I will provide for the youth." 

"So kind of you !" and Caesar 'bowed low. "I pay you 
beforehand with a thousand thanks !" 

There fell an irksome pause, during which they heard 
the low sobbing of the boy — whose note turned, however, 
from sadness of cne kind to a sad gladness of another, 

"Nothing more?" 

"Lord, no ! I think that is all." 

Jose looked perplexed, for the silence about Marltana 
augured ill for his plot. 

"Life is a jest, and one should quit when it pleases 
best !" said the lively one. 

Jose feared that he could not engage him in his project 
for so trifling a return. 

"Oh," said he, abruptly, "you jest without considering 
the manner of your leap ofif this earth !" 

"There is something in that ! You are no friend to dan- 
gle a rope before me ! A rope — faugh !" 

"By the royal favor, a silk rope has been substituted for 
the hempen one!" remarked Don Jose, in an irritating, 
bitter tone. 

"Why, death ought to come to a gentleman by a sword- 
point of scimetar edge ! How lonely I should have felt in 
paradise at being dispatched there direct for killing the 
infidel, and so making sure of glory! And the fire that 
slays out of a hand-gun mouth is not to be sneezed at I 



Awaiting the Gallows. 95 

But A beastly dog's leash! Yes, my lord, I find I have 
one request !" 

"Name it, my dear!" 

"I will leave the gallows to my creditors and the rope 
to be used first hand on the keeper of the city prison who 
offered me, a peer, hard cider ! But let me be shot offhand 
by soldiers ! This page of mine tells me that they have 
served out to the guards some very fine arquebuses, fresh 
from the Parisian smithies, and quick, clean and sure ! I 
will embrace the honor of their first fruits ! Who cannot 
brave death from brave men ? Let me be shot, and mean- 
while, let me treat to drink the bold fellows !" 

"Drink with your executioners?" 

"Don Caesar has drunk with the sheriff who served him 
with an eviction I I have sipped with sinners, gulped with 
gypsies, and clanked the cannikin with coach-strippers ! A 
carouse with jailers and marksmen will not sully the 
Count of Garofa !" 

"You shall enjoy your wis'h," said the minister, nod- 
ding. 

"No deception to a dying man ?" ^ 

"On the name of the Santarem !" 

"We will toast each other ! It is rather unfair, for while 
I can sincerely wish them long life, theirs to the like will 
be hollow — hollow as this earth !" 

"My dear, there shall be such a banquet as will recall 
the love-feasts of the ancients !" cried Jose, enthusiastic- 
aliy — "our revels at the college and yours among the 
wreckers of your argosy !" 

"Good ! The best eating Is when another foots the 
bill !" said the other, like a judge. "My gullet v/ill enjoy 
this feast, for it began to ache at the fear that the rope 
jyould be greased by vulgar tallow !" 

".You are an odd fish !" said the minister, laughing in 



96 Awaiting the Gallows. 

spite of himself. "There is nothing else but to present 
my condition !" 

"Ah, I might know there would be the P. S. — 'Please 
settle while the tapster is in the room !' " 

When they were solemnly seated again, their seats 
drawn up closely, so that the page should not overhear 
their dialogue, Caesar asked what was required of him. 

"Not much for a man who might have lost his head. 
Your hand, Don Caesar !" 

"My hand — with absolutely nothing in it?" 

"Oh, it will be full ! I simply desire that you should 
marry !" 

"Marry? I am over young ! No? Over poor? Nbi! 
Well, I see no use in this ! Is all I can bequeath to the 
Garofas a widow — a wife for an hour and a half?" said 
he, looking out at the clock. 

"Why, this is under the seal !" returned Jose, mysteri- 
ously. 

"I call it the same! It cannot be for my fortune, be- 
cause the poor relict would have nothing but my debts 
and my title — no title deeds ! Still, the name of Garofa 
may have its value! Ah, in your late experience of the 
world watched by the police, you met a woman wht> 
wished to become a lady — a countess — I see!" 

"It might be so !" 

"Well, she shall have it ! Anything to oblige a lady !" 
said the gallant, pufTing his words out like so many 
feathers. 

"I thought so," muttered the other; "poverty may mot 
be baseness, but it is a branch of knavery !" He rubbed 
his hands again as if his palms were itchimg. 

"A name! My name! It is nothing to me and' the 
sooner it decks a wedding certificate as my memorial 
tomb, the better for the survivor, widow, and the grave- 
stone-'graver ! iBesides, I wanted to fill up my timef 



Awaiting the Gallows. 97 

Marriag-e is something to do — something which I have 
not done — and one way to kill the Old Fellow with the 
grass-cutter and the egg-boiler is as good as another! 
Another philosophical refleotion, if my coming out as a 
Plato does not startle you, Jose, in so short a honeymoon 
We c?miot have any long tiffs !" 

"Let us see; you agree to confer the title of Countess 
of Garofa on my selection " 

"As we give a name to a flower, let her be as covered 
with charms as her laite lamented was with debts! Oh, 
there goes with it all my claims, rights and interests in 
the lands of Garofa, if you can set foot on anything 
worth my setting my hand and seal unto. Well, I did 
not lose it in the law courts, anyway — only fools and 
stubborn-heads fatten lawyers ! By the bye, what is the 
lady's name — her pedigree?" 

"Seek not a good woman's pedigree!" retorted his 
cousin, sententiously. 

"A good woman ! That is something new — a saint in 
the Garofas at length! Is she young?" 

"Do not ask a woman's age." 

"I understand your delicacy, and I smile with you. 
I wager my life — no, that is hardly mine! My name — 
no, that will soon be another's — the halter which I re- 
noumce, that the dame is over fifty!" 

"No matter." 

"Not in the least; the bargain is struck! I am, g"oinig 
to marry — take a wife, as I used, as a boy, to take physic 
— with my eyes shut." 

"You need not do that. The lady, with the modesty o£ 
her sex in general and of our race in particular, will wear 
the orthodox veil, but thick as a Moslem would prescribe, 
and that will effectually shut out your seeing her attrac- 
tions." 

"Thanks for the delicate consideration shown the 



98 Awaiting the Gallows. 

Count of Garofa ; as for that to be paid the countess, can 
you not double the veil, that she shall not see the bride- 
giroom's groom-of-'the-stable-like condition ?" 

"Faith, you are in your traveling-dress, and the affrays 
— first with the arquebusier captain, and then with the 
alguasils — have rent it sorely !" 

"The legs of the breeches do not match — you see that ? 
Well, it came about that the tailor I last employed, on 
saying that he would not drive a needle unless paid in 
advance, and, having half sent on account, laid befo-e me 
only one-half the breeches ! It is a breach of common 
decency between tailor and customer^ — but, better half a 
leg than none. I cobbled it up with the other half of an 
old pair !" 

"Do not deplore ! You shall have a costume becoming 
the Count of Garofa! The other cell has been turned 
into a dressing-room, as the soldiers' messroom has been 
into a banqueting-hall ! You see, you are served in all 
your suits excellently !" 

"If I hear a bad word agtainst your excellency in the 
country whither I go, for you may have sent a slanderer 
there already, count on my cramming his calumny down 
his throat ! Now, have with me as you will ! Deck me 
a!S the fatted calf! Crown me with rosy-posies as the 
pole of May, and lead me to the altar ! Epitaph upon the 
Last and Best Count of Garofa, alias 'the Gay Rover!* 
who departed this life in his nine-and-twentieth year, 
regretting it was not by so many revenses changed into 
ninety-and-two of them ! 

"All through his life, he gayly spurned 
Those common bonds which tie men; 
Yet freely freedom sacrificed 
To be the slave of Hymen" 

"^•Boy,** said Don Jose, to the lad coming respectfully 



Awaiting the Gallows. 99 

iatid with some warmth of eye out of his covert, "you are 
in my service henceforth. This way, cousin, dear!" 1 

Caesar lagged a Httle. After the gush of fervor had 
come second thought, and he muttered under his easy 
smile : 

"What suit does he prosecute for this suit he gives 
me? Oh, he offers a sausage to secure a whole pig! He 
fs marrying off an old frump of a housekeeper so as to 
utilize my death!" 



CHAPTER VIII. 

PREPARING TO Die. 

Don Jose went into the governor's own rooms, which 
had been handed over to him during his stay. 

He refreshed him with wine and feUcitated himself cm 
his 'astute management. Ordinary diplomatists let men 
be hanged and make no use of them. His superior tact 
had converted the useless Don Caesar into a lever to raise 
his fortunes. 

"He will be married and give my peerless Maritana a 
title in which she will be resplendent, while he trailed it 
in the mire. Without wishing it or guessing it, he has 
assisted in the attainment of my highest desires !" 

The varlet awaiting his orders was given such as Wiould 
have the feast for the soldiery got ready, as well as all 
the preparations for the drumhead wedding in the castle 
chapel. 

After the removal of the barrier to further progress in 
Don Caesar's execution, Maritana would be titled, and 
the king might advance his suit without censure at stoop- 
ing too low. "Garofa" would hide the gypsy brand. 
The plotter only trembled lest he might be blamed by the 
queen for using her name in bending the dancing-girl to 
his course. But he believed that she would in time close 
her eyes to anything perpetrated against her rival. The 
only thing was that he must not fan her resentment, or he 
should lose in the girl his only hold on the jellyfish 
with a crown known as Carlos, "the royal imbecile." 

The clock was on the stroke of six when a courier 
<:ame to the gates seeking the police minister, who had 



Preparing to Die. loi 

not yet been prioclaimed minister-in-chief of state, though 
placed so in the court chronicles. 

Jose broke open the packet with some trepidation ; such 
waders in troubled waters a;re ever apprehensive lest they 
stumble into the deep and meet some sharp which would 
maim them in their enterprise. 

It was the royal pardon, spite of precedent, and the 
royal word that, this time, forgiveness was debarred. 

The truth was that Caesar's family, learning that the 
king had waived the letter of the decree and allowed the 
bullet to be substituted for the halter, had taken a step 
further and so besought, pleaded and bewailed that Don 
Carlos had relented altogether. 

"Caesar is pardoned !" growled the minister. "Luckily 
this reaches my hand, and not the corregidor's. Poor, 
weak Charles ! But it is well that he should do an occa- 
sional kind act in order that his ministers should get ap- 
plauded now and then ! All know the course ! A sub- 
ject is doomed to death — well ! but the good king is ap- 
pealed to and his melting heart is reached — well ! Of 
■course, the bl'owpipe ministerial did the fusion, and the 
pardon is writ'ten by the minister and signed by the king, 
who gets but part the praise. It is sad, but one of those 
inexplicable counter-tides set in, which will run in the 
best-governed kingdom : the pardon arrived too late ! It 
is like the dootoir's boy, stopping to play leapfrog and 
bringing the phial of panacea in time to sprinkle it on 
the coffin ! What a mournful mishap !" and he wiped his 
eyes after wiping his lips. *'My poor coz ! He was to be 
turned off to the musket-practice at seven and this par- 
don will not arrive until eight !" 

He buttoned the paper up securely in his inner pocket". 

"But you will see that the king and his new prime 

minister will be blessed for the exercise of the crown's 



102 Preparing to Die. 

finest prerogfative, which, I believe, is also Messire St 
Peter's !" 

While finishing the wine and feeling the diverted paiv 
don press on his usually petrified heart, hs heard th« 
soldiers in the yard. Rejoiced by the feast which was to 
be given to overcome that dread and dismal mood evolved 
from a m-ilitary execution, they were singing, as they 
polis'hed th^ir arms to look their best in the culprit's 
honor : 

"With measured step a'nd gloomy brow. 
Behold the dreadful choice platoon: 
"Where solemnly dead masses flow 
To one whose corse will fall eftsoon ! 
But what recks he who meets that call 
When, like a soldier, still, he'll fall? 

With jocund cheek and lightsome gait, 

Behold return they who have slain; 
No dismal chants intimidate 

The one who's finished life's campaign. 
Oh, what shall reck who meets that call 
And, like a soldier brave, will fall?" 

'Jose started with a shock, for in the person who en- 
tered he saw not the man already dead in his eyes, but 
a perfect renewal of all that had made the mad-headed 
Count of Garofa the idol of the court. 

Caesar was attired with the most scrupulous care ia 
the truly magnificent costume which his cousin had fur- 
nished. Nothing could be in more extreme contrast to 
the miserable, faded, frayed and tousled finery which ho 
!had discarded. Here was all the sumptuousness which the 
gloomy monarchs of semi-monastical Spain had vainly 
^ught to blot out. Satin, silk, gold and beaded lace, 
plumes, silk hose, and regalia of the orders of chivalry to 
which he was entitled' — he was a mannikin for a oo»- 
Itumer's window but for the manner of his bearing it 



Preparing to Die. 103 

It was that of the born aristocrat, used to such pomp 
from infancy. 

It was the bridegroom's dress, 'true ; but he resembled 
more, from a slight seriousness on his brow, that warrior 
who was wont to don his finest suit when he went into 
action. 

"Ah, coz, the phoenix rises out of the ash heap !" cried 
he, with overflowing gayety. "Are velvet and gold 
thrown away upon your kinsman? Do you see, I the 
more sincerely thank you for this compliment, as who 
knows but that I may meet St. Michael, king of the war- 
rior angels, and I wish to do credit to my corps!" 

"St. Michael! Where you are going, I doubt he was 
ever!" 

"Oh, you are behindband with your Scripture! Did 
not the sword-bearing archangel chase the fiends into 
,Tophet?" 

"You will be the figurehead at the banquet, that is 
positive," continued the prime minister "I have had 
everything prepared as becomes a marriage of a grandee. 
Look into the other hall!" 

Csesar peeped, and started back from the gorgeous 
spread. When this prison-house was a Moorish palace, 
never had its board been loaded with such dainties. 

"Wine in flagons of parcel-gilt ! This is setting silver 
apples in basins of gold! I would wish you could create 
my guests noble, so that they would not be outranked 
by that Westphalian boar, that right royal buck's haunch, 
that imperial swan, roasted in its tail! Wine, wine!" 

"Then there is nothing lacking?" 

"Yes, one thing — one savor, one adornment, one tid- 
bit ! Woman, lovely woman! But why did I say woman ? 
It reminds me of my coming disaster — my marriage!" 

"It is true! I will immediately present to you th0 
JCountess de Bazan!" 



104 Preparing to Die. 

With these words he quitted the apartment, and, al- 
lured by the table, Don Caesar passed into the armory 
hall. 

It was hastily, but passably, decorated for the extraor- 
dinary ceremony within those gray walls, streaked with 
the rust of chains. But the soldiers of the tiring-iiie, to- 
gether with their comrades, gave but a fleeting glance to 
the man they were about to slay, on beholding the boun- 
teous display. 

"The Germans," said the shining host, "have a moral- 
ity; that all good things go in threes. I must say that 
here we have three good things, indeed," taking his place 
at the head of the board, "good welcome!" 

"All hail Don Caesar de Bazanl" 

"Good entertainment!" 

A murmur of approval, as from bees at the edge of 
honey cups. 

"And good-sped to the departing host!" 

There was a protest in a deep voice at this untimely re- 
minder. 

"They all three make good company, the best com- 
pany! Comrades, for I was an ensign in the Royal 
Guards, fall to!" 

There was a great scuffling as the men dropped into 
their seats and proceeded to demolish the pies and pas- 
ties, which were only made to increase their thirst. 

"The sole regret I feel — but do not let it be a damper — 
is my being compelled to limit our regale! I have an 
appointment of some moment — very few moments, 
egad!" . 

He stood up, the others at ease, all having fully- 
charged bumpers. ■ 

"Aha, Oporto, I hail thee, old and early friend — also, 
my latest one! 'Tis long since we met, and I have been 
palmed off with pretenders, who claimed kin with thee, 




A Paramount Picture. 



POLA NEGRI IN HERBERT BRENON'S 

1 




PRODUCTION OF " THE SPANISH DANCER." 



Preparing to Die. 105 

iwithout foundation of a grape ! True descendant of the 
vine, tempter of Father Noah, who would not have taken 
to the boats if you had been the chief component of the 
flood! Offspring of our sister Portugal, me seems, you 
have a Moorish smack ! Fill up again, boys ! Now, to 
one who is not yet entitled to grace my board — to the 
lady of my house! to the health of the Countess of Bazan 
and Garofa !" 

Rising, the troopers shouted the toast till the rafters 
of the old Alcazar threatened to be down about their 
ruddy ears. 

"Gentlemen of the Arquebuse," said the host, rising 
for the last time, "it is proper and of good usage for the 
traveler starting on a vague journey, the knight prick- 
ing forth on his errand, the mariner adventuring to sea, 
to preach a moral to those who wish him well! Listen 
to mine, which has the brevity of wit and a novelty which 
may recommend it!" With an unshaken voice, mellow 
with the wine, he trolled: 

"No doubt there's a lay — (for the rhymer spares none) 
To the bride of a day, wed in name — still a nun ! 
To no end may you browse, among verse, sweet or sour! 
There's no line to the Spouse who was wed for an hour ! 

Oh, soldiers, we're sheep, whose time ne'er's our own, 

We let others reap where hast'ly we've sown ; 

We're roused from the plank ; we're marched from the bower. 

No rest but where sank the Spouse of an Hour ! 

Did Methusalem wed? If so, early and once? 

Living nine hundred years! Fie! who'd vie with that dunce? 

Far happier Jove, when his dread golden shower 

Divorced from his love that great Spouse of an Hour !" 

He turned amid the somewhat sad applause to the 
window, which gave a limited view of Madrid's scores of 
steeples, spires and towers, and said, with false emotion: 

"Farewell, my natal city! I have yearned to hang 



lo6 Preparing to Die. 

upon your neck, and you came precious near to hanging 
me on your gibbet! Farewell, the seventy churches 
which I have never intruded upon, and the ten thousand 
taverns, wineshops and popular resorts, where I have 
run up many a flight of stairs and longer bills! Fare- 
well, blessed bells, which will about the same time ring 
in my wedding and my funeral! Farewell, squares and 
g"ardens, where I have laid my drunken pate! Farewell, 
the palace grand entrance, into which I have been mar- 
shaled with the grandees' honors, and the Fuencanal 
Arch, out of which I have been expelled with my vagrant 
friends by the beadle of St. Espirito's. Farewell, Hall of 
Battles in the Escurial, where my ancestors' doughty 
deeds are depicted, and petty hall of battles in the Next 
Sovereign ding-house, where my feats are dented in the 
wall with empty wine pots and knife points which missed 
my ear! Farewell!" 

The clock struck half-past six. The morning was 
ablaze in the east, and the city glistened in every passage 
open to the god of day. 

There was a flourish of trumpets. 

A man clad in black opened the door and shed dull- 
ness over the festive chamber by his suit and demeanor. 

It was the usher of the prison director. He announced 
all unpleasant matters, as a stage manager has to apolo- 
gize for disappointing the audience. 

"My lord," said he in a lugubrious croak like a bit- 
tern's; "the judge desires a hearing!" 

"What, my old acquaintance, the justice of the Insol- 
vent Debtors' Court!" cried the gentleman in the white 
satin, advancing briskly. 

"No, my lord," replied the usher, reproachfully. "The 
Chief Justiciary!" 

"Really? They do the Count of Garofa too mucli 
honor! Let him come!" 



CHAPTER IX. 

WEDDED BEHIND PRISON BARS. 

There was an impressive show. The judge was accom- 
panied by two juniors, several secretaries, registers, 
clerks, what not, with a special guard of halberdiers. 
Don Caesar, in his brightness, seemed a butterfly among 
bloated black spiders. He bowed to the judge, lowly it 
was true, but perhaps his bow was even more respectful 
to the Chief Alguazil, next to the Minister of Police in 
his estimation. 

A tribunal was improvised for the legal dignitary by. 
placing a chair on a platform, whence the wine butt was 
drawn, and the judge, flourishing a parchment, intoned 
in a Jeremiah's voice as follows: 

"In the name of the king, Don Carlos, etc. 

"His majesty graciously accords to Don Caesar ol 
Bazan, the Count of Garofa, etc., his royal grace! Thei 
count will not suffer the death designated to offenders in 
this degree at the hands of the common executioner, noif 
yet of the royal headsman, but, by our royal pleasure, 
will be conducted from the hold of his present prison to 
the barrack-yard of the Royal Arquebusiers, under their 
escort, and be shot by a file of the commander's selec- 
tion." 

"It may be to the royal pleasure," murmured the cul- 
prit, "but I will be hanged, that is, will be shot! if it is 
to mine!" 

This was not heard by the judge, who darted at him a 
lingering glance, like one who was losing a prey, and 
folding up the order, which his clerk took, he solemnly 
bowed lo the unfortunate man and retired. 



lo8 Wedded Behind Prison Bars. 

At the door he paused and remarked grumbhngly to 
his secretary: 

"What mountebank's trick is this? He is tricked out 
like the gypsy dancers, only that the material is gen- 
uine. Is he allowed to put all the plunder out of gold- 
smiths, drapers and bootmakers upon his back?" 

"I think, my lord," said the writer, "that, as the con- 
demned leaves all his attire to the deathsmen, he, having 
been of the guards, in his younger and better days, wants 
to remunerate them well for shooting him with fatal 
aim!" 

It was a quarter to seven — Don Caesar resumed his 
stand at the table head, as if they had not been inter- 
rupted. 

"You will tell me," said he genially, "if a poet's in- 
fatuation for his children leads him to surfeit you, but I 
have just time to enchant you with another couplet of 
my composition! Little did I think, when I wrote out 
the rough draft, years ago, in the camp before Tarbes, 
that this little impromptu should give so much ameliora- 
tion to the sharpest of pangs!" 

They could not do more, for such a host, than fall into 
"attention," and assume such stolidity as characterizes 
the military hearing "orders of the day." 

"You will pardon me, my lord," said the usher, who 
had dropped out of the ranks of the sinister cortege, and 
taken a drink out of a flagon without being asked. "But 
they are going to smother up this case so that your name 
may go down to posterity unsmirched." 

"You don't say that?" said the host. "They are not 
going to burn me, that I shall say nothing?" 

"But they will burn all the papers !" 

"Then they should burn the judges and accessories as 
well, for that justice is a blab — I can tell that by the 
mouth on him! Never mind, if my verse is spared, that 



Wedded Behind Prison Bars. 109 

will be enough to immortalize the Count of Garofa ! Not 
many counts of my house have done so little guiltily as 
murder — the grammar of his time! To my last verse, 
gentlemen!" 

And as fluently as before he recited: 

"So envy the Jack, whose wedlock was curt! 
If one's snatched off the rack, the less depth to one's hurt. 
He may mock at the cloud full of storms — let them lour; 
What of lightning can shroud the blest Spouse of an Hour?" 

The recitation was a little marred by an organ in the 
chapel, tuning up mournfully, and soon the monks were 
heard practicing a hymneal paeon so dolefully that "the 
Jubilate" might as well have been "the Misericordium," 

"Hark! she comes! Gentlemen, decorum — here comes 
my wife !" 

Lazarillo appeared at the door and sang out lustily: 

"Way for the Countess of Garofa and Bazan!" 

Behind a veiled figure, robed in rich white, Don Jose 
shov/ed himself. He wore a vizard, which concealed his 
identity from few. Several enigmatical persons, his 
agents, or the prison governor's servants, brought up the 
rear. After the sedate judge's cohort, this was tame. 

The soldiers had saluted the lady, but embarrassed by 
the indelicacy of their confronting the spouse of the man 
they were about to convert into a human sieve, they le- 
vanted with celerity. Lazarillo, struck with a sudden 
thought as he noticed that the wine had got into even 
their hardened skulls, fleetly followed them, and was 
eager to make friends with them by proving that he had 
not forgotten, in becoming a page, the art of loading the 
firearms. 

The marquis whispered to his cousin: 

"Bear your promise in mind. Not a word! Not a 
peep !" 

Don Caesar shook his head; the veil was impenetrable. 



no Wedded Behind Prison Bars. 

"The bride awaits the bridegroom's hand," said the 
master over this unwonted ceremony. 

The count took the hand presented with curiosity; it 
was soft and yet not wholly that of a court lady, bathed 
in a g"love of unguent by night and embalmed by day. 
There was no jewel on it by which a patrician could tell 
the wearer. It was quite a small hand to belong to that 
tall figure. It had not a wrinkle; but, then, all the wrin- 
kles might be on the head. He stared in vain, for never 
had a woman in Christendom been so muffled up before. 

He was interrupted in his fruitless scrutiny by Don 
Jose significantly indicating the time on his watch. 

He had ten minutes more. 

He gallantly lifted the hand to his lips and imprinted a 
kiss upon it, while he said: 

"]My Dulcina, to you I devote the remainder of my 
existence!" 

A servant took up her train, and the two went out by 
a door leading into the passage for the chapel. 

At every turn and nook there was a warder. 

"Verily," observed Don Caesar, "the governor think* 
I might take French leave. 'But if this, by any chance, 
is one of those to whom I promised eternal love, he 
might guess that she would never let me escape between 
this and the altar." 

He could not well beat a retreat, for the prime ministeir 
followed closely behind them. 

"He has no faith in me," muttered the Benedict ; "now 
I hold that it will be fair to thwart him in this detestable 
fi'cheme." 

The marquis' varlet had been left behind; he ceased in 
a testing of the dregs in the wine cups on hearing steps 
at the main doorway. A servant of the corregidor, de- 
iig'hted at being ajble to spoil his sport, uttered in a 
sonorous voice: 



Wedded Behind Prison Bars. ill 

"Their lordship and ladyship, the Marquis of Castello- 
Rotondo and the Marchioness of Ditto," and, in a lower 
voice: "Comrade, you are to show them to Don Jose, 
your master, as soon as the function is over in the 
chapel." 

The domestic looked with amusement on the old gen- 
tleman and his lady, another wrinkled dame relic of the 
previous reign, who had plastered out the creases without 
canceling them, and rouged without the irritation becom- 
ing a blush, and blackened around her sunken eyes with- 
out bringing them anew to the front. 

"Where on earth can they have brought u's, by the 
marquis' wish?" inquired the old noble, disdaining to 
question the menial. 

"Is it a prison?" counter-queried the lady, scanning 
the vault and barred windows with awe. 

Her lord had made the round of the table and exam- 
ined with a lens set in his canehead, the residue of the 
more substantial part of the feast. 

"This cannot be a prison, though attached to the 
house of correction, for this never was prison fare, a 
dish of ortolans prepared in sauce after the imperial 
mode, such as can emanate solely from the first cuisine 
of Madrid; venison, teal, mountain pigeons; no prison 
fare." 

"Is it a monastery?" 

"Up aloft it does look monastic — ^but here on our level 
some wine is left, and it is choice. Now, in a monastery 
refectory there is no good wine, and if there were, they 
would not have left a drop. No, my darhng angel, this 
is not a monastery!" 

"What place can it be, then, into which to drag sucb 
blue-'blooded beings as our select selves?" 

"My seraphic one, it does not amount to a fly-specH 
t\rhere we are. Suffice it, that we have done precisely 



112 Wedded Behind Prison Bars. 

what the eminent Don Jose has laid down ; and who 
thinks to censure a prime minister? He sent a coach 
for us, quite up to our style " 

"The coac'h-and-four was quite good enough, and I 
know my rights." 

"The driver said he was ordered to take us somewhere, 
and put us down there. Why have we been set down 
somewhere? If the delay is to be long before an eluci- 
dation, I shall bend to consoling myself," and he pro- 
ceeded to lift a bottle to his parched lips. 

"Armeric! desist! there is a waiter in the room!** 
shrieked the marchioness. 

"That is only Don Jose's man — who has, I warrant, 
seen his master drink out of the pail when it was sum- 
mer-heat. If he eyes me sourly, it is because he had his 
hand on this bottle for himself." 

"This is all very well, in obedience to the king's first 
minister, but as regards Don Jose, who is only of your 
own rank, why should you consent to be his mere pup- 
pet?" 

"I am not a puppet! the Castello-Rotondos — • — " 

"Yes, I have had their exploits at the time when the 
Cid was their armor-bearer drummed into me. It seems 
to me that you can do nothing without him. All you 
possess seems at liis nod and beck." 

"All but my adored wife." 

"Pooh, pooh," but she was flattered. 

"A rash hand — a rough word to her, and out flies the 
Sword of my forefathers " 

"So far, that you would not recover it in time to trans- 
fix the insulter." 

"Subtility of fence! You ladies would know nothing 
abo'ut such manly matters. I am afraid, like all dames 
of the court, neist of ingrates, that you despise that sacred 



Wedded Behind Prison Bars. 113 

sentiment which goes by the euphonious name of grati- 
tude!" 

"Gratitude? I find that the art of ingratiating thrives 
best with one in the palace." 

"What were we before we were taken up by this rising 
poHtician?" 

"Happy." 

"Happy, perhaps, but nobodies — vegetables in the 
rural districts. I bore a proud old title; the Castello- 
Rotondos were known like the two Castles of Castile, 
but I was in a corner, cobwebbed over. You were radi- 
ant with loveliness, but your charms were like a rich 
flower's lost among weeds. My merits were going to 
seed — your beauty was unseen. Was it not Don Jose of 
Santarem who, running against me at a hunt in my 
grounds of the Round-Tower, accepted my apology for 
being nearly unhorsed, and assumed me that he would die 
if I did not come to court?" 

"He certainly remembered you when you went tip to 
town with me." 

"Yes, he included you in the invitation. He said that 
the queen was not the mirthfulest of monarchs' consorts ; 
that she required cheering up, and that you, with your 
bright sallies, would stir up as my ancestors did the 
enemy in making upon them their sallies from the 
Round-Tower." 

"He gave you a couTt appointment," said the mar- 
chioness, smiling. 

"A sinecure; to keep the maps in order in the Escurial 
library. I was the royal cartulari'st and chartographer 
honorary. That is a link on a chain whic'h lengthens it 
out and made my neighbors glare with envy when they 
saw the badge on my right shoulder. A golden compass 
stuck on a map of the world, with Madrid the center." 



114 Wedded Behind Prison Bars. 

"Then it was the marquis who g-ave you a higher sfep,-* 
said the lady, with the same flattering smirk. 

"Yes, I am now, still thanks to Santarem, chief keepec 
of the regal hennery — I mean, pheasantry — the aviarisl 
royal." 

"But why should your talents be restricted to raising 
Indian fowl?" 

"My lady, I do not raise them — I eat them. I confess 
that I never had so many friends as since I had the ex- 
cess of golden pheasants to bestow among my acquaint- 
ances." 

"But to hatch turkeys." 

"Madam, do not speak with inconsiderateness of in- 
cubation. For these honors, which my brother peer haS 
kindly showered upon me, I have vowed to devote myself 
to forwarding his wishes, and I may say that never would 
he have been police minister without my strenuous exer- 
tions, and not premier but for my trumpeting his claim 
for the exalted post." 

"Then," said the lady, pouting, "he might at leasfi 
create you keeper of the seals instead of the Indian 
gamecocks " 

"Bless us and save us, the lord chancellor does not 
keep seals of the ocean — ^^they are, the Lord conserve 
your girlish guilelessness; they are wax stamps of quite 
another kidney. So I meet his wishes and comply with 
them all, however incomprehensible they are to us." 

"Well, he certainly acted a kind part in finding for us 
our long-lost darling, Maria," 

"That is so — he had great daring to go in among thte 
gypsies to wrench from the Duke of Egypt the final an- 
swer, w'hich they had fobbed me off from for years. But 
there is no refusing anything to a minister of police. 
The criminals may well be fearful of the lieutenant-Timr 
inal." 



Wedded Behind Prison Bars. 1 15 

"Only, we have but his word for it — suppose not that 
he, a noble, would deceive a brother noble, but that those 
necromancers have deceived him. This girl suddenly- 
produced from the shadowy world of vagabondage might 
be a changeling palmed off on us by the sons of Ana- 
oias." 

The old marquis shuddered, but quickly replied: 

*'Well, I am so eager to see our darling again that I 
would be easily cheated — I admit so much, but you, the 
mother! ah, the mother's instinct is not to be deluded. 
.You will recognize your Maria, or I will go in eternal 
txile to the Holy Land!" 

"Without me? What would I and your daughter be, 
mhh no mind so clever as yours, no sword so keen and 
ready to defend us in case we were insulted?" 

"Your honor menaced!" cried Castello-Rotondo3. 
"Let a breath attack your honor, or my child's, and this 
g'ood blade, made at Fuentes by the celebrated sword- 
smith, the cross-eyed Leon, would leap O'Ut of its case! 
You do not tell me that any one has lampooned my own, 
my beauteous ?" 

*'Well, not yet, but I foresee that, in accepting this 
•tray child, educated in the hedge-school and finished in 
the thieves' kitchen of the Bohemians, we are laying our- 
selves open to many a slur at our being easily gulled. 
iAgainst me, who can raise a whisper, but this waif, this 
foundling, who becomes our fondling so mysteriously 
and suddenly — I am afraid, my own, that you will want 
to defend with both short and long sword." 

*'Tush! You will be the best defender of our pet! 
You, who have with your virtue, repelled those fulsome 
tongues which for thirty years have merely treasured the 
hope to speak to you of your attractions. Time himself 
treads on your cheek without leaving a footprint; your 
features are unalterable; your beauty is still the base for 



116 Wedded Behind Prison Bars, 

the deepest-drunk toast at our table, where the wine of 
my own vintage supplements the culls out of the royal 
pheasantryl" 

"You may kiss me for that sentiment! — but on the 
hand, pray, for the horrid gnats out of the river-pools have 
specked my cheek. I have had to inundate it with balm, m 
spite of my aversion for toilet devices." 

"Yes, you would detest artifice. But, hark!" 

"There is somebody coming ** 

"With a torch !" 
. "That will enlighten us !" 

"Enlighten !— torch ? What a fine wit she has ! Well," 
chuckled the old beau, "I wedded that woman because she 
chaffed me into the union, and I believe that I shall go off 
to the blest mansions all the gayer because she will let slip 
some brilliancy at my deathbed !" 

"Now," said she, smoothing her laces as a hen strokes 
(down her rufHed feathers, "we shall discover where we 
are, and perhaps meet this errant daughter of ours !" 

"Indeed, it is Don Jose, and he is not alone !" 

"He has a young woman with him !" 

"But she is in bridal costume!" cried the marchioness 
as the Marquis of Santarem appeared, preceded by two 
pages bearing flambeaus, cermoniously escorting Mari- 
tana, still veiled as when united in matrimony to the 
happy-unhappy Don Caesar. 

"I wish you joy," said the lord of Santarem, presenting 
Maritana, who made a courtesy as finished as the old 
lady's, though less stiffly and with the elegance of a 
trained dancer. "The king, at my instance, has added to 
your posts that of Master of the Warrens !" 

"Tlie head warrener? I am to have the royal rabbits 
under my charge. Oh, my!" and Castello-Rotondo 
clasped his hands in rapture. 

"As well make him keeper of the whole menagerie at 



Wedded Behind Prison Bars. 117 

once !" grumbled the lady, who saw that the stranger was 
uncommonly handsome and very young-. > 

"Lady fair," continued the marquis, bowing to her and 
smiling as if she had spoken the most pleasant remark, 
"the king has not forgotten your exemplary conduct, 
which keeps the maids of honor in due trim. He begs 
your acceptance of the late hunting-box at Las Delices, 
with servants, equipment, all in full order, where he 
further beseeches you to make it pleasant for your daugh- 
ter, the Donna Maria of Castello-Rotondo " 

''Daughter !" exclaimed the couple in a breath. 

Maritana unveiled, for the good nature under the senile 
silliness was clear to her piercing eyes. Her surpassing 
brightness and winsomeness completed the capture. The 
marquis thrilled all over, and his wife melted. Their 
countenances beamed with smiles. 

"Good !" Don Jose spoke to himself. "A thousand du- 
cats on it my fiction is the truth ! The Duke of Eg>-pt did 
kidnap the old fool's child, and this is the one. I could 
have sworn from the outset that Maritana was no plebeian. 
Good ! good ! I wanted a lady by birth to rule the king, 
and by so ruling let me rule ! I am not the first premier 
who used the petticoat as a shield and overcame all oppo- 
sition by a woman's fan! The sword is for brutes; the 
pen for bookmen ; but the fan, it is the instrument for 
which Archimedes of the court alone wish. It moves the 
world of fashion and politics, and there is no other !" 

Still the two women, insensibly nearing, did not come to 
contact. It was like two feathers on the pond — they were 
attracted, but yet something repelled. 

"Don Jose de Santarem declines any thanks for this 
blessed reunion," said he, loftily. "It is to the persistent 
researches of the marquis that the recovery of your 
daughter is due. At the last moment I gave a final impul^ 
which pushes the dear Maritana into her mother's arms. 



Ii8 Wedded Behind Prison Bars. 

I hold all the proofs, which the marquis can verify. But I 
am overzeaious — I should have relied on the heaven whic& 
has relented in its spite! The voice of nature stirs that 
bosom — that heart of a thousand ! Mother, embrace your 
child ! Father, thank Heaven for this restoration !" 

Maritana forgot all but that she had yearned many and 
many a year for a mother ! She opened her arms and 
sank swooning with joy upon the old marchioness* 
scraggy neck. The skinny arms met behind her back, and 
the Marquis of Castello-Rotondo trotted around the pais 
like a tailor admiring a new suit on a beau, weeping and 
uttering little cries of delight like a hen which had found 
a swan's egg and flattered herself that she had laid it. 

"Our child!" they both muttered. 

"How fair — the image of her maternal progenitress at 
that age !" exclaimed the courtier. 

"I see myself in her !" added the lady. 

"Capital !" muttered the minister. "I have made manjj 
grin with a skillful lie, but this time, I believe with truth, 
I have filled that trio with happiness ! This will bring » 
blessing upon the rest of my plan !" 

The clock struck seven in the prison yard and the re- 
verberations entered the hall. 

"You vv'ill therefore take yourself with your new-found 
child to the hunting pavilion, with which the king favors 
you ! It is convenient to the court, where, as soon as she 
has rubbed off the asperities gained in conventional life, 
the Lady Maritana, Countess of Garofa, will assume her 
place !" 

"The Countess of Garofa?" 

"Undoubtedly countess ! for I was present as best ma» 
at her happy wedding with my cousin. You see, I have 
nothing to win thanks upon — I was only acting for th» 
gain of the family !" 

"Then we become relatives ?" 



Wedded Behind Prison Bars. 119 

"Marquis, we are brothers !" and Jose shook the other's 
hand demonstratively. 

"I see, I see ! The king- bestows the hunting-box upon 
my daughter for the sake of her husiband — his favorite, as 
his father was the last monarch's?" 

"Well, no ! Out of respect for his memory !" 

*'His memory ?" 

"Exactly ; for " he held his hand up to beg attention. 

The silence was broken by a volley of firearms, which 
sent dull echoes through the thick prison air. 

"Great heavens ! Musketry !" 

"A salvo of joy !" corrected Jose, with a reassuring 
smile. "In honor of the marriage." 

"But are we not to see our happy son-in-law?" 
' "Not yet — marquis ; he has gone -on the king's service to 
another world !" 

j "Oh, the New World, where all brave Spaniards go?" 
! "Precisely — the new world to him ! Take your daugh- 
ter to your new residence. I will notify you when you 
may present your thanks to his majesty." 

He placed them in charge of his footmen to be con- 
ducted to the carriage-and-four still waiting-. Then, going 
to the window, he peered out between the curtains at the 
prostrate form on the parade-ground, with two penitent 
friars crouching over it and unrolling the cere cloth. 

"Good-night, Cousin Csesar!" said he, waving his hand. 



CHAPTER X, 

THE HUSBAND OF PSYCHE. 

When the sovereigns of Spain becatnie enervated aind, 
inistead of risking their lives in battles, lost only time in 
petty pursuits, such as the shooting of small birds, since 
falconry vi^as too exacting a pastime, the gunsmiths conr- 
trived lighter and surer firearms. The princes first to 
carry fowling-pieces worthy the title were of Spain. 

This led to the hunting-boxes, in which were held 
nightly revels after the slaying of big game, becoming 
shooting pavilions. Here the mild sportsmen discussed, 
on the table, the woodcock, snipe and hares, which had 
superseded the wolf, boar and roebuck. 

Such a shooting shelter, magnified with luxuries, 
adorned with decorations by Italian artists and paintings 
by Velasquez and his disciples, received the Countess of 
Garofa, under the tutelage of her suddenly-provided 
father and mother. 

It is one of the redeeming features of the court, which 
has few, to let nothing disturb its surface, for, if you 
accept a proclaimed event as settled, argument ceases, and 
consequently there cannot arise the acrimony of debate. 

As every family pretending to antiquity had its legend 
of a 'Stolen heir, sometimes abducted by eagles, some- 
times by those human birds of prey, the gypsies, the tale 
of Maritana being rescued from the everlasting wander- 
ers was t!o be endured. The story was embellished by 
miystery of the midnight marriage, followed by an unac- 
countable fusillade in the Corregidor's courtyard ; this 
was claimed by one tale-teller to have been fatal to the 
bridegroom, and by another to have so little injured him 



The Husband of Psyche. 121 

that he was very palpably living-, but was journeying to 
Gibraltar and thence voyaging- in Africa along the coast. 

This abrupt self-banishment on the part of a penniless 
adventurer was a daily occurrence in that era of fortunes 
made by adventurers in the still productive East. Be- 
sides, Don Caesar was known to have been in the Algerian 
service, a polite way of putting the fact that, as a slave, 
he had rowed in the pirates' galleys. 

This disappearance of the husband, blotting out his 
commonplace life among ithe vagrants and her short but 
bright career as a mountebank, songstress and dancer, 
was sufficiently striking as to furnish the debutante with 
the halo of attraction, which brought all eyes to bear upon 
her. 

Then, again, the family of Castello-Rotondo, whose 
head was continually favored with proofs of the royal 
esteem, took up the daggers for Maritana, and it was as 
miuch as one's life was worth to hint — simply to hint — 
that her restoration was more than a passing step from 
the nunnery to the parlor. 

If some still questioned the gypsy abducting and 
argued that the cunning rogues had offered the first sharp 
and pretty girl at hand for the position of daughter of 
one marquis, protegee of another, and wife of a count, 
the iready reply was that none but a creature born of the 
sangre-asul and educated according to the school of gen-^ 
tility, could so stand the inquisition of social arbitresses. 

But all fell to the ground and "ko-towed" when, after 
having given the hunting^pavilion to the Castello-Ro- 
tondos, the kin'g announced that he would celebrate the 
union of the Two Criowns' anniversary by a battue in that 
park and be the guest of honor at a gala in the evening. 

Maritana, Countess of Garofa, was ""accepted." There 
was not a word to say. 

The day had been delightful ; the game had come like 



122 The Husband of Psyche. 

docile lambs to the range of the ro^^al sportsman, who 
had bag-s full enough to feast all the patients in all the 
hospitals of Madrid ; at dusk the fireworks began to 
sparkle and blaze. The lanterns shone like glowworms 
and fireflies. The spaces at the crossroads had each their 
little entertainments, masquerades, burlettas, clowns and 
oolurnbines, musical scenas, and balls on the lawn. 

There were hopes that the hereditary sulks of the kings 
would die out in Carlos, who had never reached this 
height of lightheartedness. 

The hosts were in the seventh heavens. Relying on 
the favor from both sovereign and his premier, the para- 
sites fastened themselves upon the marquis and his d'ame. 
They could not well felicitate their daughter, as she 
relegated to the background until the existence of her 
husband was author it;atively declared by the police min- 
ister. He was inquiring the more rigidly and closely as 
his own relative was the vanished grandee. 

She could see a little of the shooting party, perhaps, 
through the bars of her windows, the jalousies or 
Venetian blinds borrowed from the Orientals by theTtal- 
ians and the Spanish. But of the banquet she was not 
to have a peep. She hoped that if the news of Don 
Caesar having in some w^y escaped the doom which had 
befallen him in spite of the royal pardon should arrive, 
she might be allowed in at the "wine and nuts" period. 

But Don Jose, whether or not he had spurred on his 
"familiars," as they were called, to ascertain the truth in 
the popular report that his cousin, having sinned against 
the goodmes's of justice as much as against social canons 
by his escapades, had been carried away by the Prince of 
Evil, came with a smooth countenance to join the choice 
assembly in the boudoir of the marchioness. Here were 
merely members of the families of Castello-Rotondo and 
the marchioness. 



The Husband of Psyche. 123 

Don Jose joined them,' with a saddened visage, but 
tmder his breath he whispered to the host and the guest, 
without letting- the bereaved one hear : 

"We sihall have a consoling visit before the night is 
out!" 

Therefore, with -a good heart, those who were as pre- 
pared t;o mourn as encourage began to broaden their 
faces and wag the tongue merrily. 

Two or three continued assiduous court to the old! 
dame. 

Others lauded the marquis and besought remembrance 
as he mounted the gilded steps. 

"Never," said the young Knight of Xarragona, flaunt- 
inig in a Parisian suit, for he was fresh from the FrencH 
court, accompanying an envoy, to negotiate another of 
those treaties which were called "piecrust" (pate) be- 
cause they were so short and easily broken, "never in my 
experience" (he was about three-and-twenty), "never did 
I see a woman look so charming as your lady. I have 
not the honor to have seen the daughter of the house 
priorily, but I can aver that no one would assume that 
they were other than sisters !" 

"Elder sister, if you please," interrupted the marchion- 
ess, with a simper. 

"Now, I protest!" 

"And I," said his companion, an Italian stripling who 
had reached Madrid to learn the language. 

The marquis strutted and thought that in unanimity 
must be truth. 

"My young friends," 'S'aia he, puffing out like a pigeon, 
"you miust comie again and see my gallery — I have ap- 
pended to it — lappend is good, for they are not on the 
panels but 'hung' — diepended, see ! — several masterpieces 
by our own artists, for I detest the skinny saints of your 
old Italians and the blue-eyed crockery madonnas of the! 



124 The Husband of Psyche. 

Dutch ! You show so much taste in other matters that 
I am sure you are first-rate judges of paintings " 

"At the present rage for cosmetics and tints," said the 
pert youth, "one who can judge paintings can judge 
feminine beauty !" 

The premier was studying the captive saved from the 
Egyptians steadfastly. Her abstraction seemed to him 
founded on ambition, and this chimed in with his key- 
note : 

"All goes well. This musing shows intellect. She 
will be a ruler for Spain, under my tuition!" 

There was a glow of the fireworks without and bursts 
of all kinds of music. 

Castello-Rotondo went up to his patron, who was so 
enrapt. 

"Have you been siated with the fete, in which I see your 
hand? Our dark women must look lovely under the 
artificial lights. Your magic has caused the stern hidal- 
gos to throw off their usual taciturnity and they are 
prattling light nonsense in the bowers like pages ! I see, 
though, that you regard most fixedly my daughter — ^does 
she not bear her trying new station well?" 

"She is a princess !" said Jose, with unguarded en- 
thusiasm. "Blood will tell! She has merely stepped 
uipon the pedestal destined for her!" 

"May it be but a stepping-stone to a higher position! 
Under your auspices, who knows how high her husband 
may .arise ! For it is undoubted — 'I had it from the writer 
for the Royal Signet — that the king, with his unfaltering 
support of the old nobility, did grant a full pardon to the 
luckless Don Caesar." 

'T — I think that we may presume that, if he were shot 
down, it was rtot fatally !" 

"That will fill mv poor child with hope !" 
; "Only he must have fainted from loss of blood. That 



The Husband of Psyche. 125 

is How two or three penitent friars, conveying the body 
away as if it were a dead rag cast off by all mankind, de- 
posited it in some catacomb of the mountains, and to 
cover their stupid error, relate all sorts of insensate 
stories." 

"Do you hope for his return " 

"Wounded and weak, perhaps; but able to bear his re- 
placement in society. What is your opinion?" 

"Oh, the reformed rake is known to become a steady 
pillar of the state. Ah, you and he, cousins that are like 
brothers, you might, indeed, be the two pillars of the 
state — our twin columns of Hercules, incomparable, un- 
surpassable — 'Ne plus ultra!'" 

"I see that your opinion is mine — you are unrivaled ad 
a courtier. You will get on in the palace, my lord." 

"With your aid, my lord." 

"Your tact is so fine — your obedience so utter." 

"Quito! have done!" and the old noble attempted to 
blush. 

"By the way, how are the royal birds, under your care, 
coming on?" 

"They are coming off excellently. I am happy to say 
that there is not a bishoD in all Spain superior to them in 
plumpness." 

"I suppose you are not wedded for life to the estab- 
lishment of poulterer royal?" 

"I — ^I — prefer horses and dogs, of course, as a noble- 
man." 

"You have met the fairy godfather — ^at least, you may 
have one of your wishes while awaiting the other to be 
fumiled." 

"Would you overwhelm me?" 

"It is rumored to me that Don Canino Barcahunda, 
whose absence from the hunt to-day was attributed to a 
fall off his horse, was bitten by one of his charges, on 



126 The Husband of Psyche. 

whose tail he had incautiously stepped. If he should re- 
tire on a pension on account of this wound received in 
service, why " 

"Oh, he is master of the ro)ral lapd'ogs, descended 
unbroken from the Chow-chows sent hither by the Great 
Cham to Pope Clement, who sent a pair to our King 
Philip! Master of the lapdogs! I — catch me lest I 
lose my footing ! Oh, I never aspired to that dignity ! 
Canino had it by right of succession and taste, for he 
loves pugs ! His nose verifies that taste ! But I — am I 
worthy of such a distinction, dear Don Jose?" 

"You have peculiar parts which entitle you to be set 
foremost on the list of applicants !" 

"My lord, if I secure that post, count on all the ladies 
of your preference having the choice of the litters !" 

"Yes, but see how those fops are pestering your lady! 
I think such coxcombs should be taught a lesson ! Get 
your hand in by breaking those puppies, ha, ha!" 

Trying to assume the air of a jealous Ottoman, the 
old dotard hurried over to where the gallants were amus- 
ing themselves at the dowager's expense. 

This left the plotter to center his attention upon Mari- 
tana. He spoke to her and she started as if she had for- 
gotten the surroundings. 

"You are traveling in a voyage to the moon !" said he, 
softly, "but how can you be pleased with a festival seen 
through the windovvpane. But soon, I engage, you will 
be able to participate in such rejoicings. There is all 
at your disposition which wealth and taste can bring — 
nothing is wanting but " he plaused for her to sup- 
ply the omission. 

Maritana heaved a sigih as if the gems on her boidice 
weighed upon her. 

"Mother of mercy!" said she at length, with much 
melancholy, "nothing is wanting but one whose absence 



The Husband of Psyche. 127 

left a void here, and this yearning for a companion makes 
me loathe the gUtter and the perfumes and the melody 
which grate on my senses!" 

A footman gUded skillfully among the guests and went 
up to the minister, to whom he said, in a carefully-modu- 
lated voice : 

"Please your lordsihip, the personiage expected has 
come into the little red room." 

Jose smiled with relief. He beckoned to the marquis 
and remarked like one who could not be refused : 

"I wish to hold a private confabulation with a friend 
here. Could you kindly manage to clear the floor of 
these flutterings?" 

This was somewhat unceremonious and quite opposite 
to the old routinist's conduct, but it had to be done, he 
did not doubt. 

"Oh, it will not be difficult," returned he quickly to 
'hide his surprise if not his chagrin as host. "I will in- 
duce my rich cousins to go out into the Moorish divan, 
where I open the flasks of wine from the royal cellars, 
and I will turn out my poor cousins on the balcony over 
the patio, where they shall have the wine that was in the 
cellars here for the hard-drinking huntsmen. If that 
does not rid us of them, do not count me more your 
deliverer from nuisances !" 

But after he had stiltedly shown out the antonished 
guests, he and his wife were called back by the self- 
appointed director. 

"T should like the dear countess to stay with her 
'daughter," observed he like a command. "And you will 
also oblige me by lingering." 

"Oh, it is we who are obliged," said the lady. 

*'I know I am — ^for I am going to the dogs I" chuckled 
the marquis. 



128 The Husband of Psyche. 

Don Jose went up to the brooding Maritana and ut- 
tered wheedlingly in her ear: 

"This merrymaking shall be perfect, for it is going to 
have 'the presence here of one whose absence left a void 
in your bosom and yearning for a companion !' " 

Then, without waiting to mark the effect of her words 
thus emphatically repeated, he quitted the room by the 
side door used by the messenger who had stated that a 
visitor was waiting for him. 

Maritana turned bewildered to her father, saying: 

"Did you hear those last words, father? You are the 
host and mvited all the party ! Will another present 
himself w^hom 1 have not seen in our family circle ?" 

"I dare say so!" 

"Who?" 

"Oh, that is the mystery — the crowning surprise!" re- 
plied the old lord. "I did not catch what Don Jose was 
driving at — or rather, driving in upon us, nolly-volly ; but 
I thmk it is my duty to echo everything he says !" 

"Father!" cried Maritana, "What does all this mean? 
Why this continued mystery? I am told that the mar- 
riage ceremony through which I went as meekly as a 
captive slave, was the wish of my benefactress, the queen. 
But the queen — she does not accompany her mate to 
this 'holiday — ^and I am told, on begging to be allowed 
to see her, that I must wait!" 

Her blue eyes burned as if to emit sparks to consume 
those who impeded her. 

"Here I am, perplexed, racked about my husband of 
an hour! All sorts of stories pester me like ephemerae! 
The> sting and they rankle! I am told that he has been 
exiled ; that he was shot and has died ; that the very soul 
of him was carried away by the Enemy of all!" She 
crossed herself devoutly, showing that either her earliest 



The Husband of Psyche, 129 

training had come back or that, in a few hours, she had 
absorbed the manners of 'her regained degree. 

"Wait, wait ! but I am not used to waiting ! The poor 
vanderer would not wait — I do not see th'at the rich girl, 
daughter of an old imperious house, and wife oi a noble, 
should be told to wait ! Tell me, dear mother, dearest 
father — is Don Jose deceiving us — is he trifling with 
me!" Her eyes expressed no good will to him who 
made a jest of her. 

"But, my dear, you must have seen your husband when 
you stood beside him ?" 

"It was because I stood beside him, and not before him, 
that I saw next to nothing of him," replied Maritana, 
crossly. 'T was stifling in a provokingly thick veil, and 
he seemed bound not to draw it aside ! I could have 
wished that the priest would have insisted on bestowing 
upon me the kiss of benediction, but in order that my 
husband might have seen, I trust, that he was not draw- 
ing a blank, as the gypsies say, in the lottery of love ! 
But, no I did not see him then — he did not see me and 
I — I — that is, he — ^he ! we have not seen one another 
since !" and she began to sob in her handkerchief. 

"This," said tihe marquis, "this is the downright blind- 
ness of love ! To marry and not see the man ! There 
could be nothing to admire!" 

"You are mistaken, sir!" rebuked M'aritana, "for it 
was his generosity in hfting out of the straw the poor 
wanderer, the dancer and singer who lived on the alms 
of the liberal ! He defended me when I most lacked a 
defender, fate having deprived me of those naturally my 
shield and buckler!" 

"You are her shield, I am her buckler! well said, tnj 
dear !" said the marquis, clapping his bony hands. 

"For my sake — ^for I believe he remained with the 
band merely to enjoy my coquettish company! I was 



I3C fhe Husband of Psyche. 

cruel to him — I made him my butt, my music-holder, m/jj 
accompanyist, my — 'my " 

"Well, all comes right ! He is a count ; you a marquis* 
child! Hope on — I will, once fixed in the royal favor, 
have this matter set right despite a dozen Don Joses!" 

"Hist, he returns !'" whispered the marchioness. 

Her husband wilted as if a sirocco had bounded over 
the sea and blasted him. 

"I will demand," said Maritana, "yes, demand of this 
Don Jose when I shall see the queen and the king, if 
I must have resort to the highest tribunals for justice 
and enlightenment !" 

"Hush, he is here !" stammered the marquis, as the 
person in question re-entered the apartment. 

He wore a joyous, contented mien. He advanced 
without trepidation to Maritana, who had taken a step 
toward him also unflinchingly. 

"Sir, my lord, when am I to see my husband?" 

"I am glad to be in the nick to answer that question,*' 
responded he without hesitation as if he had full satis- 
faction ready. "You are to see your mate this day." 

"That is direct — this day?" 

"This evening, then." 

The marquis turned to the speaker with an inquiring, 
puzzled eye. 

"Then he is not dead, and his soul " 

Jose made a crushing sign for him to be silent. 

"Surely, sir, I have misunderstood the facts all along," 
faltered Maritana, with pain at her relief being at tht 
cost of too hastily reprimanding one still her friend. 

"Pray be calm," said the minister, with cold suavity. *1 
have hurried hither with the good news." 

The marquis clasped his wife's arm and drew her t^ 
ward the pair. 

"Now we shall learn something at last," said he. 



The Husband of Psyche, 131 

Unfortunately, Jose heard him, and, wheeling round 
and taking him by the hand, as he was holding the 
marchioness', drew him up to the nearest doorway, saying 
imperatively : 

"Leave me with your daughter, my cousin's wife, which 
authorizes the breach of decorum! Besides, your guests 
are clamoring for you." 

The old couple withdrew with disappointment clouding 
their brows. 

Maritana faced round as the noble returned, and firmly 
•aid: 

"Now that we are at last alone, kt me hear all — ^best or 
worst ! Where is my husband ?" 

"'He is at hand !" 

A cloaked figure, indeed, crept out from behind the 
tapestry screening a secret door, and stood like an actor, 
waiting for the cue to discover himself, his glowing eyes, 
however, fastened rather upon the woman than the man. 

"At hand?" muttered Maritana, without comprising all 
die room in her hasty glance. 

"Remember that he has made his peace with his king, 
but not with the Church, whose offices he spurned, and 
with whose born enemies the gypsies, he too long ran his 
course ! He is under the ban and must keep himself close 
lest he sleep in the dungeons of the Holy Inquisition !" 

His hearer shivered, for the dread of the Holy Brother- 
hood was more poignant in a gitana than in any other, 
even the Jew. The Jew sometimes became a convert ; a 
Bohemian never ! 

"But you say he is here?" 

"Yes, for your sake he has ventured I" 

"Oh, my cousin, you shall be my brother for this ! Let 
us find a place of security for him, between us ! Let me 
flee with him if there is no harbor in Spain ! Let me — oh. 



132 The Husband of Psyche. 

where is he? Do you not see I am dying a hundred 
deaths? Where is my beloved?" 

"Here!" answered Jose, dramatically, as he beckoned! 
the mantled man to approach, confident that he had leveled 
the path. 



CHAPTER XI. 

Two CLAIMANTS. 

When the cloak was thrown aside from the form of the 
cavaher who stepped into the place from which Jose re- 
spectfully retired, Maritana shrank, but it was purely with 
surprise, not with repugnance. 

She was gazing upon a somewhat remarkable man. 

Don Carlos was handsome after the Bourbon pattern ; 
lie was generous of money as a Medici, frank in speech as 
a descendant of King Henry of Navarre and France. He 
was very winsome, after an acquaintance. When he was 
forced by the united powers of Spain, France and Austria 
to give way as to the Duchy of Tuscany in favor of this 
youth, Jean-Gaston received him with tears, but when, 
later, this displacer was called away, he bade him fare- 
iwrell with tears of regret. 

He saluted her with the courtesy of a royal cavalier. 

"The Lady Maria del Castello-Rotondo," said he, with 
«ad reproach, "do you not remember me?" 

"Ye-es ; I have seen you before," She still shrank back 
and whispered to Don Jose: "This is not the man I was 
raarried to !" 

"It is the man beside whom you stood at the altar!" 
said the liar, stoutly. "You gave your hand to that hand 
— that hand was clasped in yours !" 

The Father of Lies could not have articulated more dis- 
tinctly or used a more sincere tone. 

"But that was Don Caesar de Bazan !" 

**Oh, this is Don Csesar ! Am I to be cheated in my own 
•ousin? The Don Csesar whom you knew among those 
4ogs of Mahound was but a byblow of our family — he as- 



134 Two Claimants. 

sumed the name to draw it in the dust ! It is he on wKoiil 
all the ill-odor should fall and cling ! This is my honored 
cousin — your favored husband !" 

"No," said Maritana to herself, laying her hand on het 
bosom, where responded not a flutter, "This is not my 
Don Caesar — not my love, not my mate !" 

"Come, come," interrupted the king, disconcerted by this 
odd check to the usual current of royal whims, and too 
enrapt to show his vexation, "is this the reception meet for 
one whose eyes followed you in many of your erratic 
strolls, whose servants watched you when the hotbloods 
would have carried you off as the Romans bore away the 
Sabines ; who was charmed, when the gross populace 
turned, disgusted, away by the poesy in your songs falling 
into the melancholy strain \" 

"I GO not forget how generous you were to me! It is 
a further recompense for a songstress to meet with a syno- 
pathetic admirer, but I trembled while I accepted your 
bounty." 

"You trembled — good ! for it is the tremor of love that 
the bards ever tell of; the current shooting from one 
breast to another, the circulation of love which Ovid re- 
lated long before the surgeons found it out to be imitated 
by the blood! My happiness was centered in you as 
your fortunes in me ! I determined to raise you, pearl in 
the slime, to the diadem where you instinctively aspired. 
Resolving that I should share my passion with you, I re- 
solved tha^ you should share my wealth I" 

"That is,' suggested Don Jose, "wealth when it was re- 
stored to you, for, as Don Caesar, under a cloud you had 
but your title !" 

"But now we meet both under happier auspices! You 
are elevated to your place of birth, I am promised restora-' 
tion of all I forfeited by my rebellion against social laws 
and the king's edicts. Now, you have but to give m% 



Two Claimants. 135 

one smile, one word of love, and you will be my sovereign 
mistress ! I live for you again, and for you alone !" 

Don Jose rubbed his hands and nodded like a stage-in- 
structor, proud of his pupil. 

"Not so loud, Don Caesar !" said he, but with such mild 
reproof; "the menials might hear!" 

"Lovely one," continued the king, believing her silence 
was in his favor, and pursuing a course cut-and-dried be- 
tween him and his accomplice, "my return must not be 
known until I am formally declared free from apprehen- 
sion, moral and physical. But my danger should not sep- 
arate you from me " 

"Danger," broke in the unctuous, sermonizing voice of 
the chorus, "ought to more closely unite husband and 
wife !" 

"What is the world to us? We can be happy remote! 
Let us dwell in a nook of Arcady together !" 

"Together!" repeated Maritana, confounded like a wild 
bird between two of those dogs which hunt together, one 
chasing until the prey is exhausted, whereupon the other 
■springs upon it the more securely. 

"A few miles from town is a blessed hermitage for lov- 
ers." 

"Lovers," added the prompter in this duet, "on whose 
plight Mother Church has smiled !" 

"If we meet there " pursued the royal courtier. 

"Pray, my cousin, do not delay ! The guests will be 
inquiring for you," whispered Don Jose. 

"My lord, I cannot leave my parents thus suddenly," 
said Maritana, who had time to consider over her part. 

"Leave her to me," suggested the intriguer to the king. 
"The guests are returning indoors, methinks. Sir, the 
countess is right. It would not be seemly to have her 
leave her home in the midst of the joviality without ex- 
planation. She might be followed by some of those hot- 



136 Two Claimants. 

spurs, and you might be followed, also! Come away — I 
guarantee that she will keep the tryst !" 

"Some one is coming!" snarled the king, wild with in- 
dignation that his privacy was intruded upon, and about 
to draw his dagger, if not his sword. He had forgotten 
that he was pretending to be less than sovereign. 

"Oh, to let go my grip " 

The king's face was suffused with angry blood ; his eyes 
had the yellow tint of tiger's, taunted with a withdrawn 
bone. 

"Quick, quick !" cried 'his sycophant, throwing the 
cloak over him and clasping it. "This is the safest way. 
Into the gardens and begone!" 

Maritana saw the exit managed with skill and expe-" 
dition. She looked sorrowfully at her trinkets and re- 
splendent dresses. 

'She thought that she had sold herself to a keener mis- 
ery than she had previously known, and at what a cost. 
Wife of a man who daunted her without her knowing 
why — one whose wealth, which his air proclaimed, at- 
tracted her less than Don Caesar's poverty. 

It was the marchioness whose stiff petticoats had 
rustled loudly in 'the corridor. She looked amazed at 
seeing Maritana in tears. Don Jose made her a sign 
to conduct her daughter out and condole with her. 

He remained there, smiling, as if tears always caused 
him joy. 

"The king is a schoolboy at love-making," sneered he. 
"But the wildered dove must be put in the cage alone, 
and then all the obstacles which still bafrle me will be 
brushed away like motes that temporarily obscure the 
sunbeam." 

He prepared to excuse himself to the host, and make 
him have a coach got ready and place his daughter in it 
for a dieparture which political reasons connected with 



Two Claimants. 137 

her husband, commanded. He was on the doorsill when 
he felt a hand pluck him humbly by the sleeve. 

He turned quickly and angrily. A bent form, clad in 
a monk's greasy and threadbare russet robe, presented 
a blot on the thick Tunisian rug and against the Bruges 
arras. 

"Who are you? What want you?" said he, brutally, 
thinking it was one of his agents in disguise. 

"Alms," was the doleful reply, "for a poor man who 
has lost his name and his wife 1" 

"A monk lose his wife?" repeated Don Jose, mute in 
consternation at so bad a jest under this holy surface. 
"What devil of a monk is this ?" 

"That ever-merry devil, your cousin !" 

The cowl was tossed back with a reckless turn of the 
head, and the saucy face with its unquenchable eyes 
looked serenely into his own. 

"Don Cses'ar !" 

"In search of his wife !" 



CHAPTER XII. 

FACING THE FIRING LINE. 

On the bridegroom being placed for execution before 
the corporal's file, he requested only one thing, to wit: that 
he should not be blindfolded. 

"In boarding a ship, when I was fighting the Algerine 
Corsairs," he explained, "I often had to rush along the 
slippery deck into tlie gaping mouth of a pivot-gun, and 
to face the hand guns, that small change of cannon. I 
cannot bear being hoodwinked." 

Without anything but his careless courage prompting 
him, he had, in waiving that common acquiescence in hu- 
man weakness, done the finest act toward his saving. For 
at the instant of the soldiers taking slow aim with the im- 
proved French inventions, v^hich were still sufficiently 
clumsy, he caught a glimpse of Lazarillo covertly making 
impressive signs to him. 

When a man's life is suspended on a word of command, 
all his senses become sharpened. He believed that the 
pantomime of the intelligent youngster implied that he 
had in some way juggled with the muskets. Considering 
that he was an armorer in the bud, this was significant. 

So he took the hint in the most probable manner. 

As soon as he saw that each lighted match, attached to 
a lever, was about to drop upon the pan filled with powder, 
he shut his eyes, and at the fizz — not the flash, which was 
a shade later — he dropped and was floundering on the 
ground as the smoke, impelled in his direction, momentar- 
ily hid his body. 

He shut his eyes and set his teeth. 

■But as the detonation still ran along within the walled 



Facing the Firing Line. 139 

inclosure, he was sure that he had not been touched by anjr 
projectile. 

"Dash me ! but that httle imp has in some way rendered 
those firearms innocuous I" 

So he curled himself up, kicked out as with the last 
spasm, and the rigor mortis seemed to spread over him as 
he becam.e stiff as a ramrod. 

He had not long to wait for the natural sequel. 

Three or four men, not military, came deliberately to- 
ward him from a buttress, where they had been sheltered 
from the shots, if any went astray. 

One was the surgeon attached to the prison, the other 
two monks ; at least, they were clad in the long robe, with 
hood coming to a point, slit with eyeholes, which denoted 
they were no doubt of the Penitential Fraternity. These 
usually dealt with the remains of those executed persons 
who had no friends to obtain the grace of interring the 
body in their guise. 

"Unless my wife has determined to add my earthly cas- 
ing to the row in the family vault," thought he, "I doubt 
that these good fathers will be emissaries of my cousin — • 
who might prefer that all traces of me should be lost in the 
paupers' pit!" 

These charitable brethren carried a large sheet of 
tanned canvas which was the winding-sheet of their "cus- 
tomers." 

They were also supplied with prayer-books, chained to 
their waist-girdle of rope, with beads, blessed candle and 
a box or unguent. They knelt down, and Don Caesar 
heard at his two ears a hash of Dog Latin which, perhaps, 
was not meant to be comprehended by the vulgar or 
learned. 

"I suppose that is a prayer for the dead," said he to 
himself, very dubious. 

In the meantime the surgeon took out with daintiness, 



140 Facing the Firing Line. 

for he was a fop in his way — what they called in the town 
where he was a favorite, "the ladies' doctor" — a notebook, 
with a silver-point used as a writing implement. He pro- 
ceeded to take notes, which must have been exceedingly 
valuable, since he kept his distance. 

"What are the wounds?" asked he as soon as he be- 
lieved he had given good measure to the prayers. 

Luckily the fine doublet of Don Caesar had been torn 
open at the breast, and his underclothes had more than one 
hole and slit and were stained with grease and probably 
blood as well. So one of the monks answered with natu- 
ral impulse founded on this misleading aspect : 

"Why, doctor," snuffling, "the poor fellow is riddled like 
a folio with bookworms ! there are at least two round holes 
here !" and he held his fat hand over the bosom, which did 
not rise and fall in the least. 

"Ah, wound in the super-auricular region," said the 
delicate son of Galen, "and another in the intercostal sec- 
tion ! You will accept my thanks, for I am going to a 
supper in the town, and this fellow, over whom was 
merely thrown those spruce habiliments, came out of the 
Jewry and, lastly, out of the cells where I lost several 
patients through jail fever!" 

Whereupon, shutting his book with a snap and sniffing 
at a handkerchief dipped in aromatic vinegar, he nodded 
"good-by" to the subject so briefly dismissed, and trotted 
off to where the governor would receive his official state- 
ment that the dead prisoner was duly removed from his 
charge. 

"Was it likely," observed the fatter monk of the pair to 
his companion, across the body, "that I would, if possible, 
let him cut and snip with his scissors this lovely satin ? I 
•have a buyer for it, Omfrio, d'ye see !" 

"A buyer!" thought the pretended corpse, "Lord be- 



Facing the Firing Line. 141 

tween us ! suppose they have a buyer for my flesh-and- 
bones as well !" 

Unfortunately, he could not indulge even in the mild 
relief of a shudder. But the monks, with a celerity born 
of practice, proceeded to roll him up in the sheet so that 
he could imagine what the mummies of his friends, the 
Egyptians, must have felt, presuming there is post-mortem 
sensation. 

While working, they continued their dialogue, coolly 
professional, in a tone and with a frankness altogether too 
elucidatory to warm the blood of their patient. 

Never was dialogue more calculated to enchain the sub- 
ject, and he did not lose a syllable. 

"So, so," crackled one voice, "we are again to deprive 
the common pit of the corpse? Is it to go into the cata- 
comb of Our Good Works Church ?" 

"My dear old Anselmo, this hapless mortal is to stay, 
like the body of Mahomet, whose name be cursed thrice, 
seven times and even nine, by the way, as a misleading 
prophet ! in suspense ?" 

"Do you mean we are to hang it up?" 

"Metaphorically, my brother! But what a blessing — 
this time, we can take away the body openly and above- 
board." 

"Yes, Omfrio, we have the pass verified, I suppose it 
was obtained through the insistance of his relatives, for 
this is no common wastrel " 

"He is a scion, by the side of some noble house, who 
assumed the family name only to disgrace it! This is 
seen every day, considering that families put all the good 
members in the Church and cast the others into the army, 
or to loiter through life in bad company !" 

"Oh, I am not the lawful heir to Garofa? Ah ! this is a 
story set afloat by that hanged Don Jose!" thought the 
"Dead One." 



142 Facing the Firing Line. 

"And the family have redeemed the excrescence?" 
"They want to do so. But there are other claimants !" 
'"H-'allioa"' thought the subject under discussion, wincing 
mentally, "I am more in request dead than alive!" 

"Where do we take him, then? I heard that his patri- 
monial estates were dissipated into thin air!" 

"Sclah! it is so!" spoke Caesar, so low under his breath 
that he did not hear the sound himself. 

"They are buried under an avalanche of mortgages, 
post-obits, repudiated notes of hand, protests et cctcrae!" 
A soldier who stood a little way off, to guard the dead 
until out of the prison yard, crossed himself at this scrap 
of Latin which, in his innocence^ he took for a pious ad- 
juration. 

"Go on," said he apologetically. "I do not follow you 
' — I scarce know my Credo!" 

"Anselmo," continued the monk, but so as not to be 
overheard by the sentinel, "we have but to convey it to 
the chapel of our convent — • — " 
"The Good Works?" 

"Where he is to rest pro-tempore, until his destination 
is settled upon. Mark, his cousin is no less than the 
Marquis of Santarem, raised to the premiership yester- 
day, and he will for the name's sake have him fitly dis- 
posed of!" 

"He shall be handled tenderly, for he ha's become more 
precious since he cast off his mortal integuments than 
ever before !" 

"Amen ! Ah, what a leap-frog game life is ! Down 
goes one cousin, making a back, and over goes the other 
with a skip, and rises into the foremost office Oif the king- 
dom ! A clod, here — there, a diamond out of its shell !" 
"Fine old family !" reflectively pursued the monk, who 
■was securing the sheet by its frayed edges supplying the 
lihread. "I was, when 'rusticated' once, down amongi 



Facing the Firing Line, 143 

the Garofas ! It was said, whenever a Barefoot stubbed 
his toe on a stone, that the stone was not there when the, 
Garofas first were lords !" 

"Holy brother, we know sometimes where we were 
born, but seldom where we will die and be buried This 
Garofa, granting he is Garofa, may never rest beneath 
his ancestral stones." 

"No, not with his cousin so powerful as to draw his 
corse from the pauper grave ?" 

"I intimated, dull pate that you are! that there was 
another bidder?" 

"So you did!" 

"You forget that, though it is forbidden to mutilate 
the casket of the soul, even to discover secrets useful to 
the race, the 'prentice 'sawbones' of the university, as 
well of Salamanca as of Saragossa, or of Segovia, which 
is only a step over the sierra, and, consequently, nearer 
home, give its weight in copper for that human pasty 
which they like to carve up in the dissecting-room." 

"I believe at last in the g'houls and the vampires 1" 
thought Don Csesar. 

"It would not be the first time," said Omfrio, frankly, 
"that I have heard of bodies being diverted from the 
crypt to that haunt of deservation !" 

"And, still, there is another bidder." 

"Well, I admire this treasure !" said Omfrio, play- 
fully patting the cased packet, luckily not where it was 
sensitive. "It is like the country we live in — three con- 
testants for it — kaiser, French prince and our ovv'n Don 
Carlos !" 

"Between the three, I am likely to be quartered," 
moaned Cassar, inaudibly. 

"Yes, his boon companions " 

"Not the cadgers, the lepers, the gypsies " 



'The gypsies, through their king, not a bad fellow/ 



144 Facing the Firing Line. 

"An excellent old scoundrel! He had forced me to 
drink with him when I lost my way and strayed into the 
ward under ban." 

"Forced you to drink?" incredulously. 

"Well, the rogue held up a horn with one dirty paw 
and brandished an ugly, crooked, saw-edged poniard 
in the other similarly dirty, and saying that it was 'tears/ 
which I was vowed to drink. I was compelled to gulp it 
down. Happily," and he smacked his pendent lips, "it 
was the wine called irreverently 'lachrymae," and I was 
well out of it. Then he added insult to the ignominy! 
He gave to me, who was seeking to bestow alms on these 
vermin, a bag of coppers, saying it was for my Christian 
poor." 

"Well, it is this merry Duke of Egypt who will, I 
doubt not, offer a bag of silver, not of gold, to our ab- 
bot for this adopted brother of theirs." 

"Adopted brother?" 

"Without doubt. Have you not seen him dance with 
the pretty girl, the prettiest of them all, who has set the 
courtiers dreaming? Well, the foresworn knight learned 
those steps on their witches' Sabbath. Dressed only in 
a smear of hog's fat, they dance around Behemoth, or 
Levi Nathan, one of their infernal deities." 

"It would ill become the abbot to lodge the poor 
wretch in those excommunicated hands." 

"Oh, that he will not, unless the bribe is overtopping." 

"Still, it is a horror — profanity in person," and the 
monk rattled his rosary, and, in his excitement, lashed 
the body a little smartly v^th it. 

"I honor your words," thought the body, "but I owe 
you one for your frantic gestures." 

"But have you done? Here comes old Pedro, wnth his 
mule. It is good for him to bring his strongest beast, 
for the dead weigh heavy." 



Facing the Firing Line. 145 

"I only wish I could fall on you with all my weight, 
heartless monster," thought Csesar; "ay, I would drop 
out of my lot in paradise to execute that judgment, you 
fat lump." 

"With two panniers," said Anselmo; "are we to cut the 
body in half?" 

"Cannibal — no! I shall occupy the other basket to 
counterbalance him." 

"Heaven make it light for him!" 

"His punishm.ent?" 

"No, the mule's burden — the two of ye/' 

"Yes, you can lead! We will exchange when we get 
half-way!" 

The soldier looked on as the two lifted the bound body 
and set to placing it in one of the panniers. 

"By the holy lance!" cried he, "I congratulate you, 
master friar, on your nerve. It is steel of the first forg- 
ing. I have been soldiering, youth and man, these four- 
teen years, and not in the city garrisons either, and I 
would not, to be the constable of all the Spains, and 
stand with my sword of state before the king, ride cheek 
by cheek with only a wicker hedge betwixt, with a dead 
scapegrace, on a dark, rough road, infested with goblins 
and slain travelers." 

"Oh, we are proof to Satan," rejoined Omfrio, care- 
lessly. 

After feeling the sensation of a log rolled several times, 
Don Csesar felt that of being taken up and inserted, luck- 
ily head up, like a candle is put in its socket, in the bas- 
ket most convenient. Pedro held the mule by the head, 
for it twitched with its hind legs and slightly whinnied a 
protest. The girth squeaked, and the weight depressed 
the filled basket. 

"Thank my patron saint — if any of the Csesars were 
made saints," thought he — "that they knew, in mjr 



146 Facing the Firing Line^ 

shrouding- one end from the other, and stood the human 
bottle neck upward. A pretty headache I should have 
had if they had pitched me in this wickerwork with my, 
heels as the Antipodeans walk!" 

The mule was shaken as by a blow from a battering- 
ram. It was Omfrio being hoisted between his brother 
and the muleteer into the other basket. This operation 
was performed much as the famous corpulent Cardinal 
Aldobrandino, "the eighth hill of Rome," was insinuated 
into his pantaloons — by letting him gradually descend! 
by his own gravity. 

"By Jimenez!" exclaimed the mule-driver, half alarmed 
about his beast having a broken back, and half proud 
at its being able to resist this weight, "the mule might 
well be born with a cross on its back! It has crosses to 
bear worse than humanity." 

Nevertheless, the brute, bred and reared in the dale of 
Andorra to walk under loads which would have brought 
Sam.son to his knees, sustained the double cargo with 
fortitude, and slowly, but steadily, trudged over to the 
outer gate. Here the chief monk showed a pass, to 
which the gateman nodded, and the little party emerged 
into the street. 

This led tortuously to the Escurial palace gate, whence 
they took the road over the ruggedness toward the hills 
along the Alberche River. 

Pedro, whose journeys often took him to the seacoast, 
lit a short pipe, such as seamen called "nose-warmers/* 
and silently smoked. 

The monk, on foot, walking on the side of Don Caesar, 
steadied the ghastly, sheeted head as the mule slipped 
and lurched. 

"What are you moping over, Anselmo?" asked the one 
riding, half lulled by the movement, which had become 
fairly regular. 



Facing the Firing Line. 147 

"Oh, you have awaked, ehr I was just i-egretting that 
this, our load of sin, was not still more in the market?" 

"In what end?" 

"Instead of carrying him so far as our convent, we 
might, if a fourth bidder — even the Prince of Darkness — 
appeared, strike a bargain with him " 

"Useless; he will have him any way!" 

"Oh, he will, will he?" murmured Caesar. "Not if I 
ta'n spite him ; but if he did come at the nick, I believe 
he would sweep all the dice into his cap. You are as de- 
serving a niche in his oven as poor me, and as for this 
pagan of a mule-thrasher, by the oaths he uses in profu- 
sion, I pronounce that he has dast away his last hope of 
salvation." 

"Did he not die penitent?" asked the walking monk. 

"He died as he lived, flirting with women. The priest 
of the Corregidor, who ought to have known better, used 
up all his wind in the marriage service over this profli- 
gate in lieu of the burial one." 

"Married and shot? it was a h'asty snuffing of that 
candle called a man 1" 

"They just gave him time to swallow a drop of wine at 
the wedding feast. Oh, it was one of those formal wed- 
dings to give some harridan who had passed seventy 
years without an offer, reasons to bear the name of 
Countess of Garofa for a couple of years, when she will 
take the same road as he !" 

"I hope the road will be impassable !" muttered Csesar. 

"I doubt that every woman, young or old, had gypsy, 
family and surgeon, contending for her legitimate prey!" 

"Pedro, Pedro, you are plunging into the defile by EI 
Molino del Rey — do you think we want to grind this 
poor scrag's bones at the king's mills?" 

"Scrag, in your teeth !" muttered Don Caesar, put out 
of his usual equable temper by the jolting and jerking, 



Facing the Firing Line. 

and having to play the dumb man for so long a time. "I 
may not weigh as much as this paunch in the other scale, 
but 1 would It were that of justice if I do not carry more 
flesh than you, you splinter!" 

"We take it," replied the thin friar, "not to embarrass 
Brother Gregorio, who is on the south road, in his nego- 
tiation with the gypsy king — ■ — " 

"Relics of Compostella ! I learned in m.y studies that 
man has tv.'o souls, the good and the bad, but granting 
two geniuses, from what volume of the fathers do you 
draw that he has two bodies, unless he is twins ?" 

"He is hoaxing you," said the muleteer, filling his pipe 
again and stopping to light it from a tir.der-box. 

"Not at all, not my brother!" slaid Omfrio, indignantly. 
"It is meet to deceive those arch-deceivers, the sons of 
the Nile and Niger. They want to redeem their Joseph 
out of the pit? Well, we sell them a pig in a poke! At 
the carriers' halt, at Yniesta, the messengers of this wise- 
acre, the Duke of Egypt — I may say, the dupe ! await the 
body of their dear Csesar to be passed over to them for 
incineration, according to their belief, they should antici- 
pate their papa, the unmentionable, for the considera- 
tion of forty or fifty pilfer-dollars !" 

"Forty? For selling an impenitent Christian's re- 
mams to the infidels ! I never would consent to that ! 
Fifty, or he should be wasted in his own family-vault !" 

"It is the abbot who thought to beguile the brown- 
skins. They will not see the substitution till daylight, 
and they may do what they like with the pauper carcass 
which died in the homeless ward of the Hospital of the 
Queen's Bounty !" 

"How timely to enable the Gitanos to be duped!" 
laughed the friar. 

"It is to be borne in mind," continued Omfrio, who de- 
cidedly saw the humorous side of things, "that the out- 



Facing the Firing Line. 149 

!a\\rs will not apply to the minister of police to have the 
fraud rectified." 

"Omfrio, I thought to die of a surfeit of anchovy, 
which is my sole frailty, but you will be the death of me 
by laughing!" 

Omfrio settled down again, and, what was more, pil- 
lowed his head upon the almost dislocated neck of Don 
Caesar, cut in twain by the edge of the basket coming up 
to his armpits. 

If Don Caesar could have written his adventures, being 
of the nature which formed the "picaroon" novels of the 
mode, he would have set this one as the most singular of 
the collection. 

From a wedding feast, to be trussed, enwrapped, used 
as a bolster, drawn along between two body-snatchers — 
for he did not believe them true, holy men — it was too 
abrupt a transition. 

He would — at another and highly different time — per- 
h'aps smile at the double play upon his friend, the Duke 
of Egypt, but no tide of laughter set in as he was borne to 
he did not dare to guess what culmination. 

If they had been genuine priests, he might have raised 
his voice in entreaty, but as it was it was not wise even to 
raise his aching shoulders in disgust. 

"The bad point is," mused he, flattened under the doz- 
ing friar, "that this hideous proximity crushes out of me 
all my religion ! What kind of mock monks are these 
which furnish their abbot ! — Abbot of misrule ! with stock 
in trade to sell to Gitanos, surgeons and weeping rela- 
tives ?" 



CHAPTER XIII. 

TRICKING A TRICKSTER. 

In the eagerness to arrive at the goal, the hah wad 
short at the wayside cross, three uprights to commemo- 
rate a triple murder by fobtpads. The cavaUer, packed 
like a ham, was tormented by what tantahzing stimulus 
was in the gurgling of a huge leather bottle from which 
the muleteer and the monks drank to the peace of the 
immolated three. 

His throat was so dry that the smoke from the mule- 
driver's pipe irritated it till refraining from coug'hing 
was a herculean task. 

To him they had been journeying an age, but three 
ho'urs might cover the distance, when a fair stop came. 

The beast of burden gave a profound grunt of relief 
as the fat friar was helped out of the basket by the sum- 
mary process of the girth being unbuckled and the pan- 
niers spilt on the grass. He set to stamping his feet, 
before a humble inn door. Don Caesar could wish that 
he was free to leap out and lay about him with the mule- 
teer's whip, but he was so cramped that he had no 
feeling below the neck. 

A gleam of light and a whifT of hot air came out. The 
host, a squat man like a gnome of the mountain mines, 
waddled forth, bearing a bag at a time, of which he 
deposited three next the mule. 

"These are sorted, fathers," said he. "Those two are 
fit to sell at the Rocsalinas mart, and the other for 
your abbot's own table! The much broken victuals I 
have kept for my larder. But hnlloa! what are yoti 
smuggling in the other pannier? Wine, again? or giame 



Tricking a Trickster. 15 1 

out of the king's 1111111, for I heard Senor Don Carlos 
was O'Ut 'with the gun. You are surely more clever than 
the Indians who, I have been told, weight t'other side 
of a wheelbarrow with a huge stone when their load is 
onesided. 

"That," replied Omfric, who had dis-benumbed his 
legs, "that is a small wax taper, of one hundred and 
thirty pounds' weight, given by the devoitt worshipers of 
our St. Francis, to burn for his glorification in his own 
chapel in our monastery!" 

The host laughed, and playfully buffeted the en- 
fwrapped head of the prisoner. 

"Without setting fire to your taper," said he, "I stake 
my money box, which is empty at the moment, that its 
wick is human hair, and such as the wicked Roman 
emperor set up to light his garden withal, which is 
painted to the life on the wall of your cloisters." 

All laughed and the mule, refreshed slightly by crop- 
ping a delicious clump of burrs, added a short guffaw- 
like bray to the mirthful burst. 

Hyaenas in a graveyard would not, to Don Caesar's 
judgment, probably prejudiced, have had more blood- 
curdling notes. 

The fresh filling of the void basket failed to counter- 
balance him, and he was fated to be kept awake by the 
stones which jutted out of the goat's path, striking the 
basket bottom now and then. The ascent was notice- 
able and the pace was slow. The fat monk puffed and 
panted and if the results he visited the boughs with, 
which lashed his sweating cheeks had come to pass, their 
way would have been marked by withered bushes. 

Anselmo, lagging behind him, every little while 
grabbed at the mule's tail to give him a tug, and each 
time the mule gave a jerk, which almost drove Caesar's 
heart and liver into one. 



152 Tricking a Trickster. 

"If I was allotted only one prayer for fulfillment,*' 
thought the latter, "it should be that this asinine Chris- 
topher should dash out that villain's brains with a lash 
out of both hoofs." 

Sooner than he hoped, they reached the final pause. 

A heavy gate was clumsily banged open and the mule, 
though no stranger, was so tired as to blunder up 
against the oak and iron. The ofif-pannier was nearly 
smashed against the panel. 

"A murrain on the beast!" vociferated Omfrio, "do 
you want to make a pancake of the comestibles! might 
you not as well have borne to the other side, lout, and 
bruised the carrion, not the wholesome meats!" 

Not at all gently, but sourly and violently, the fa- 
tigued two unloaded the mule which Pedro had to 
hold, since it at last revolted, and they laid Don Caesar 
on a paved courtyard. 

Except that the stages of his hegira had been marked 
by too vivid impressions, he might conceive that he was 
still prostrate on the Correction House pavement. 

The shock of his fail did not penetrate the thick coat 
of insensibility pervading his body, and nothing like a 
groan could be forced out of his sealed mouth. He fell 
like a pig of lead. 

"Put the 'cold meat' in the buttery," commanded the 
porter, authoritatively. "It is the directions." 

"Oh. you will learn' what is the best offer in the day?" 
asked Omfrio. 

"Yes; they do not have counts and grandees for sale 
every midday of the week !" answered the porter, closing 
the gate. 

By each end, Don Ceesar felt a pair of hands lift him 
and he was carried with the utmost disrespect into a 
smill room, as he calculated by its quick return of the 
sounds the shuffling feet made, odoriferous with cheese. 



Tricking a Trickster 153 

salt fish, smoked meats and the pitch with which wine- 
flasks were sealed. He was let drop upon bags which 
might, from their unpleasant feeling, contain nuts, and 
a door closing with a slap, all -was dark and silent 
around him. 

It was the instant when he should have exhaled a 
long breath, in evanescent relief, but he had lost the art 
of respiration. 

The reek of the edibles brought the water chokingly to 
his lips, as it had come when the selfish monks regaled 
at the inn. This tortured him so that, had he been re- 
leased, he would have bitten into the first wine skin, 
grasped at, or the first bottle would have had its neck 
wrung and been drained in spite of the strict table eti- 
quette which the noble had been taught by his tutor. 

Another spell of anguish ensued, for he doubted very 
reasonably that such monks inhabited a monastery of 
succor to the afflicted. 

"If ever," he muttered, "if ever I make the acquaint- 
ance of our holy father, the Pope, I will certainly beseech 
him to strike this imposition off the list of abbeys deserv- 
ing a place on the records for hospitality. I shall also 
desire him to have Father Anselmo hanged at the heels 
as a bob to that pendulum, Omfrio, both of whom I 
should suspend from the belfry hereto, at which a most 
dismal bell is now tolling, I surmise. It cannot be for 
masses on my head, for they will begrudge that!" 

Emboldened by the renewed quiet, rats and mice be- 
gan to attack the holes they were boring, and the two 
or three which had already made mines, trotted gayly 
over the sacks and held councils on his body, with a 
view of determining if this new bag of store'^f contained 
a more desirable dainty. 

"I read, somewhere, in the tomes whose titles I have 
forgotten," observed he, ruefully, "of a captive, much 



154 Tricking a Trickster. 

like me, who ingeniously anointed his bonds with tallow 
so that the vermin in his prison chewed the ropes asun- 
der and he stood up, a kee man. It is to my crossing 
that I cannot get sufficiently free to grease my bag, 
though, were that much vouchsafed me, I should make 
the exit without my friends', the rats', assistance." 

Suddenly the rats scuttled out by the ways they had! 
come. They had heard before the dull man the approach 
of some one. Indeed, a wicket in the wall, just an air- 
hole, was quietly opened. Now it was not a cat, since 
few cats can draw a bolt, even to get at mice. 

"A man! Not that I expect that these friars are not 
all of a tribe." His frigid heart stirred none the less. 
"I should say by his not using the regular ingress, that 
he is a thief. But I doubt that I am so valuable that I 
am sought to be stolen away from my good friend, this 
double — nay, treble-dealing abbot." 

Thief or honest, this newcomer was assuredly not his 
acquaintance Omfrio, for he contrived to squeeze 
through the ventilator, planned small to prevent such 
overhauling the stores without due warrant. He did it 
with practised skill, crawled head down till his hands 
met a barrel, and then he dragged the rest of his figure 
through the aperture. 

Sliding down upon the encumbered floor, he righted 
himself, squatted so that his head was on the level of the 
captive's ?nd proceeded to whet a knife, till then carried 
between his teeth, on a cleared spot of the cemented 
floor. 

Cccsar, whose views were formed entirely on conjec- 
ture upon what he heard, did not need this always nerve- 
exasperating sound to perch him on the ragged edge of 
ire. 

'Tf this is a dumb man and deaf, I may die without his 
knowing who killed me in the dark," moaned he. 



Tricking a Trickster. 155 

But the man had a tongue, and, as inevitably happens 
to a member of a community where silence is impressed 
on tlie inferiors, he made up with galloping garrulity 
when loneliness put the bit in his teeth. 

He chuckled to himself as he felt the blade. It was 
more silly than cruel or hearty, this hilarity. 

"This is an idiot," resolved the prisoner, not prone, 
lately, to be gentle in his judgments. "If he pleases me 
by his acts as much as he is pleased with his own sharps 
ness, we shall be well out of it." 

"That mutton-head, Omfrio, was so dead-beaten and 
sluggish after supper, which he hogged down," said this 
unexpected visitor, "that he is asleep and will not hark 
back to this dead." 

"It is our dear boy Anselmo!" thought Don Caesar. 
"Ah, to give him one fisticuff for every letter of his name I 
I could wish he had been christened as long as Asclepic^- 
dorusianus!" 

He began to play his muscles by opening and closing 
his hands, as wrestlers do before seizing. 

"He did not answer fully to the abbot, and so I ceased 
to be on tenlerliofks lest he blabbed out that we had 
brought the dead av^ay before the soldiers thought to 
strip him of his wedc ing garments." 

"Upon my jvord" thought the prey of these vultures, 
"after the coat, the skin! I shall finally be buried, if 
ever, flayed to the core." 

"His doublet was little stained with blood — and it v/ill 
fetch ten or more crowns if I can find a ]e\Y with an inch- 
wide patch of conscience at the South Barrier, by the Se- 
govia Gate. Then, there are the breeches, with a gold 
galloon stripe which would trim a hat; the boots of the 
best Cordovan horsehide, with the spur-straps inlaid by 
fine Moorish art; the — eh? Oh, it is the rats! And the 
pearls were of a good size. All this means money, which 



156 Tricking a Trickster. 

is not going to our common treasury. I will strip him, 
add the duds to my pack, and, hey! over the mountains 
in the morning!" 

"I wish we could change places, brother, if that is yovm 
plan of campaign. I feel a sore desire to rob these de- 
spoilers, compared to whom my poor, maligned friends, 
the gypses, are unblemished saints." 

"How tough this duck is !" grumbled the monk, who 
plied his keen whittle along the sack to cut the twine and 
sunder all the envelope of the don. 

"Ay, loose me, and you will find this duck confusedly 
tough, if out of my net !" thought Caesar, whose misery 
(Was enhanced by his having to vent his choJer silently. 

If the steel had slipped and scratched him, he wta's de- 
termined not to have let a cry slip him. For he was re- 
viving himself for a mortal struggle. Only once had he 
•known such a grim resolution. After a sortie, at the 
siege of Pampeluna, being pinned down by his dead 
Ihorse, he was compelled to wait until the camp-followers, 
stripping the dead and finishing the wounded, ap- 
proached him so nearly that his last pistol shot should not 
fail. 

This deathlike quiet completely befogged the lay- 
brother. With skill, considering the glooim, he had 
ripped all the stitches right down the canvas where it was 
joined, and sundered the cord which had come off his 
waist at the inn, to secure the prize. 

It was possible for Don Caesar to spring up quite un- 
fettered, hke a snake bursting out of his old hide. He 
did so. 

But it was instantly to embrace the knife-bearer, and so 
tightly that his ribs cracked, and he could not relax the 
muscles containing the knife-haft. 

"A sound, and I shall fasten my teeth in your th'roat V 
hissed he, with the concentrated fury c^ one so agonized 



Tricking a Trickster. 157 

during four or five hours. "A move, and I will crush 
your ribs into your heart!" 

Terror at the supposed reanimation of the dead had 
converted the man into that semblance of death which 
the victor was rapidly casting off. He let himself be dis- 
armed as if he were petrified. 

Tliis captive was supine, as if his bones had been 
melted. 

"I doubt your holiness, but I will give you a few min^ 
utes to say your prayers ! Then I must kill you, to repay 
you for your cruelty on the road !" 

"It was not I ground my weight into your marrow K* 
protested Anselmo. ''It was that fat wight! I should 
say 'great weight !' " 

"W'hy, I don't dislike this knave!" exclaimed Don 
Caesar. "I do not rate your worthy of my — that is, your 
steel! But you are not lacking wit. Be useful, and I 
may lengthen the grace !" 

"As I am not a holy man, I shall require five years* 
full measure and brimiming to make my peace with 
Heaven! Oh, merciful sir, let me make the same with 
your excellent lordship first!" 

"Gammon! and I am sick of gammon all the rest of my 
life from lying on this flitch! Why do you suppose I can 
be merciful ?" 

"On your wedding night, my lord — any boon sTnould 
be granted!" 

"Still witty ; but jest less and tell me what kind of friars 
are you?" 

"We are White Friars, sir, so Called by a paradox, be- 
cause we are gowned in black !" 

"Still that vein — I must keep you on its edge, fellow, 
if You are of all colors?" 

"White, gray and black! After the sun goes down and 
(before the moon comes up, seen on the roads, you might 



1^8 Tricking a Trickster. 

take us for contrabandistas, smugglers, by your leave, 
dealers in varied goods " 

"Venders of dead bodies — augh ! I thoug'it myself in 
fhe Pit of Acheron in the gypsies' camp, but it appears 
that the Cordelers of the Cardarqua Range have in their 
monastery a deeper and blacker pool!" 

''If- you will spare me, my lord, and let us save our- 
selves from this pit ?" 

"Spare one who would not give the preference to one's 
own true friends in disposing of his corpse! how, now?" 

"It was only flattering to hold your honor for the very 
highest bid !" 

"Deuce take your trafficking! Did you look to Don 
Jose? If his soul were at stake, he would haggle tO' re- 
deem it cheaper !'' 

"The abbot will take the biggest purse — it is his cus- 
tom !" 

"Surgeon, gypsy, my cousiui — three furies who would 
rend me among them!" 

"In your well-founded indignation, sir, you graze me 
with that knife ! Steady hand means hale mind, my 
lord !" 

"Excuses — I only should kill you with it !" 

"What for? you are not dead yet! I ought to be re- 
warded for getting you out of the House of Correction ! 
It is not so easy in a prisoner of your rank, believe me, 
count !" 

"These rogues ihave been assisting prisoner's of the 
state to evade their doom all along!" 

"But your knife is inflaming the scratch it already es- 
tablished in the sub-clavian section !" 

"BJood and wounds ! have we the illustrious Dr. Tor- 
rerosi here, from Padua, who will locate a bullet buried 
out of sight with the magic lantern ray !" 

"My good lord, it was while waiting for my money fot! 



Tricking a Trickster. 559 

stiff-ones at the backstairs of the Medical Acfademy, that 
I picked up a little surgical lore !" 

"Mind your own anatomy ! Disclose ! is this abbot 
more sanctified than you and your brothers ?" 

"He was, but he was defrocked for tipsiness. That 
claused them to appoint him director of our works." 

"I would hear of his good works — carnal rather than, 
spiritual, for a hundred !" 

"Your honor is wrong — for we are spirituous above 
all ! Abbot Scampedro is the guiding spirit, he directs, 
■measures, compounds, presides over the brew " 

"What is your diabolical brew?" 

"Why, sir ! you who have a liquorish tooth, or common 
fame belies you, must have heard, if not tasted, no doubt, 
of the famous cordial of the Franciscans? That is how 
it' comes the irreverent jesters call this 'the habitation of 
the cordial-heroes,' instead of the Cordilleroes, which 
meaneth the whipped of St. Frank !" 

"Oh, this monastery is the cordial distillery?" cried 
Don Caesar, aghast. "By all that is delicious, I I'hought I 
was dreaming in Elysium, but there did come to me in 
the yard, an appetizing whifif of — out of the Persian rose 
gardens !" 

"That is our brew! it will soften the savage! May it 
melt your lordship's obdurate bosom !" 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE fugitive's FLIGHT. 

"I could do with a quart of it," observed the recent cap- 
tive, beginning to beUeve that he was near the end of this 
strait. "If it were not straining your cordiaHty too much, 
I would fain sample your concoctions !" 

"My lord, it is hard to get at," replied the distillers* 
man, taking him in earnest, "for it is made for the Pope 
and the Princes of the Church, who — sworn not to par- 
take of it, give it away to the hard-drinking kings and 
potentates !" 

"That is why, not being vended, the Crown does not 
skim your vats ?" 

"Quite right, sir — no duty on us !" 

"Does no preventive officer come noising about?" 

"Nor nosing! This monastery, which has become a 
distillery, is advantageously situated : one half is church 
property, where the Crown officers have no footing, and 
the other half is Peculiar " 

"I should think so! a pest on it!" . 

"In ecclesiastical phrase, a Peculiar Establishment is 
one over whose foundation the Episcopacy has no jurisdic- 
tion i" 

"Fine, this arrangement! I am sorry in the murk that 
you cannot see the smile of approval this arrangement 
brings out on my face ! I see, when the excise gangers 
come here, if they ever come, you move the goods upon 
the sacred land ; when the prelate sends an Investigator, 
shocked at the worldly manufacture, you shift them on the 
mundane side. My brother, your abbot will reach a high 



The Fugitive's Flight l6l 

dignity ! Pontiffs have been elected who were not half as 
ingenious as he!" 

"He is pretty sharp !" 

"I engage that he allows no leakage. For example, the 
drink you shared with your brother at the Httle inn, that 
would not be your invention?" 

"Oh, I do not say there is no spoil — no spirits slightly 
off col'or or scorched ! That excess avoids amy cess by — 
but it is a mystery !" 

"No doubt, when you are despatching a consignment to 
■Rome, a barrel or two never gets mislaid on the road !" 

"The muleteers, like that rascally Pedro, may execute 
little vagaries of that sort !" 

*T am edified! I doubt not that France and Holland 
know the Cordial by — reputation ! I see my duty to my 
king quite clearly," went on Don Caesar, with a strong 
voice, quite himself with warmth at this wrongful ex- 
clusion of the public of topers from the quintessence. "I 
shall travel post-haste to my sovereign, who sorely prays 
for cash to prosecute the war a-foot v/ith Germany and, 
eke, France, and I shall acquaint his majesty with the 
interesting fact that a call of his treasurer at the Moo- 
astery of Good Works will line his bags with the where- 
withal to raise and equip a regiment " 

"More, too ! And a train of artillery in supplement !" 

"Of course, our pious monarch would not heed mie if 
the Mother Church made this milk with her own hands 
for her own babes and sucklings, but as it is made by lay 
hands " 

"Fie ! You would not do this, my lord !" 

"The d'evil I would not! It is not you who can stay 
me!" 

"I am a lam^b in your hands, yet " 

"I distrust Iambs who have steel teeth six or seven 
inches long — but, master lamb, I am a wolf — we have a 



l62 The Fuofitive's Flicrht 



&' 



traditional man-wolf in the Garofa family, like all g"cnuine 
old families !" 

"It is because you are a Garofa, a peer, a knight, that 
it ill beseems you to play the revealer — the informer — 
there, the despicable word is out !" 

"There is something in that ! I am poor, but I do not 
hanker after head-money !" 

"Ah, my lord but I do I" 

"Oho, you would, by the little I see — that is, know of 
you " 

"Pledrre me " 



"Nothing but my word to pledge !" 

"Tliat suffices ; let me receive the informer's pay, and I 
will not only assist you to escape, but guide you to the 
gentlemen of the Royal Excise Board, and, as you make 
a clean breast of mine by kindly removing your knee from 
it, I will do the same by the king!" 

"But your friends, your dear brothers, would be 
troubled for this illicit distilling — some would be whipped 
with their own cords, some burnt in the hand, some ear- 
cropped! And the true monks would be exiled into the 
Indies or China !" 

"They would deserve their doom, sir I It is heinous to 
cheat the good, trustful king, when he wants to defend 
the realm ; it would be letting in the foreigner by with- 
holding the taxes on spirits ! I see that if I was not 
pricked by remorse for my error, I ought to denounce out 
of pure patiiotism !" 

"But for the dark I should see this glory of a con- 
summate patriotic knave ! We will see about terms when 
you show some loyalty to me, at present the arbiter of 
your fate. Rise, and come on — I mean, take the lead out 
of this rats' run !" 

He pricked him between the shoulders with the knife. 

"But it is because this is a rats' run that I cannot lead ! 



The Fugitive's Flight. H63 

ft was as much as I could do to pinch in at that airhole. 
You cannot follow, with your trunks bombasted in the 
fashion !" 

"Then there is a wider outlet! For while you often 
slip in there, thin and long as a sausage-skin, you go out 
like the same stuffed !" 

"You are an incontrovertible logician, my admirable 
lord ! Sometimes, in order to comfort a brother, who 
has been put on short rations, I have taken out a little 
sack of delicacies !" 

He removed, with the familiarity which dispensed with 
h'ght, a large corn-chest in one angle and disclosed a con- 
siderable gap. 

The two left the buttery by this hole, compelled to 
assume the ignoble attitude of reptiles ; but, soon, they 
could stand up without the head brushing the ceiling or 
the elbows knocking the sides, in a tunnel, mostly earth, 
but protected by stonework where there might be a cav- 
ing-in. 

"This is a work of art!" said C^sar, "the name of you 
rats i-.-. legion !" 

"Yes, I had the help of other starvelings ! They pushed 
me in to collect the material for a meal, since I am the 
thinnest of the brotherhood." 

"Where are we now ?" 

"Under our chapel, lord ! To our right, beyond that 
grating, black on the faint gray, is the old great hall. It 
is now our main stillhouse. There is no danger for we 
ere laying on our oars, that is, awaiting the distillation to 
arrive at the point to run it off. We have an order for 
export, to Barcelona " 

"For the bishop in the infidel parts?" queried the ex- 
prisoner, maliciously. 

He pushed the guide before him up to the high iron 
frame, where he saw, on the other side, by the glow of a 



164 The Fugitive's Flight. 

furnace and a cobbler's candle, that is, with a double wick, 
an enormous vaulted room, scarcely passable from the 
complications of spiral pipes, vats, butts, tanks and dis- 
tillery apparatus ; from all exuded a smell of fermentation 
and vinous flavors, with delightful whiffs of aromatic 
herbs. 

"That is it — that is what I smelt!" cried Cassar, "this 
is a breath of Araby the Blessed ! Nevertheless, I beg to 
know how we get out into the ordinary mountain air?" 

"Nothing more simple ! Going through the hall, for 
nothing is locked up, where nothing is to steal ! we step 
out into the gardens. We cross and climb up over the 
wall, where a good sprawling fig tree offers a ladder 
which Omfrio can mount. Jumping down, we enter the 
first cottage or the first cabin of the charcoal-burners, and 
hire a mule or two. Thus, in the dav.n, we may be knock- 
ing at the door of his majesty's commissioners of excise!^' 

"You may — but I — I must knock at my own door !" 

"Your m.ansion-door! Oh, my lord, that you had a 
mansion!" 

"Well, my wife's — the countess must dwell some- 
where!" 

"I should think she does. She is now, as far as I 
know, under the roof of the Marquis of CastellfC^- 
Rotondo!" 

"The — 'that old beau! Why, what the mischief does 
she there?" 

"Where would it be more proper for a wife, bereaved 
of her husband on the wedding night, than to be har- 
bored 'by her own father?" 

"Her fath — Marit — her father — the old marquis!" 

"My lord, along the road all news drifts, and the 
landlords repeat it. I heard from good authority that 
the Duke of Egypt had at last restored to the Marquis 
of Castello-Rotondo, from whom he has derived many 



The Fugitive's Flight. 165 

years' income with his lies, his missing daughter who, I 
believe, was known as 'Maritana!' " 

"Husband and parents found for her, all in one night! 
This is too much, too much!" 

"If the joyful news commends poor Anselmo to your 
lordship, I shall not be too proud to remind you when 
you are again able to recompense the bearer properly!" 

*'Maritana, a Castello-Rotondo ! my head is spinning!" 

They were on the other side of the iron barrier by this. 

"That is not joy — that is the fumes ! To a novice, it is 
as good as a week's debosh to inhale the reek here!" 

Caesar followed him as in a dream. All was hushed. 
There was certainly a sonorous murmur somewhere in 
the hall, but perhaps a gurgling from a fissure in a pipe. 
They came to a door which gave, through a barred peep- 
hole, a glimpse of the gardens, and cold, blue sky. Sud- 
denly, the sonorous sobbing ceased with a snort of sur- 
prise, and a dark mass, which had been taken for a heap 
of such tow as is wrapped about tubes to keep in the 
heat, revolved itself into a human form. 

It was a burly man who bade them stand, in a voice 
broken by his being not half awake. 

He did not look at the gowned man, but at Don Caesar, 
who was in his conspicuous white wedding-suit, and cer- 
tainly did not resemble the usual inhabitants of this mon- 
astic distillery. 

He carried an Arabian matchlock, but the barrel had 
been cut down so that it resembled an escopeta, that is, a 
blunderbuss for firing stone balls. It was capable of 
pouring a half peck of slugs into a hippopotamus at thirty; 
paces which would s'.agger him. 

To the consternation of the escaping captive, who was 
going to employ his guide as a bulwark, this treacherous 
fellow dropped and at the same time yelled : 



1 66 The Fugitive's Flight. 

"Fire, Nunez ! it is a spy !" 

But once gun-shy, ever gun-shy ! Don Cassar hs-d so re- 
cently learned that to stand to be shot at is worse than a 
crime — it is a fault! He accordingly imitated the falling 
of the lay-brother so accurately and rapidly that the 
s'hower of slugs whizzed over his head witliout any hurt, 
and he thumped the deceiver, on whom he landed with ir- 
resistible force. 

The detonation was terrific in that somewhat encum^ 
bered, if not confined, space. The recoil of the ponderous 
firearm, m.eant to be fired from a rest, broke the w^retch's 
shoulder and sent him against the edge of a tank, which, 
'losing its cover, allowed him to topple over and back into 
the scalding contents. 

Nunez added his screams to the cries arising through- 
out the convent, as he appeared with his head dripping 
"with syrup and his hands glued to the tank sides. 

Caesar spurned Anselmo and sprang toward the dooc 
in the wall. 

Simultaneously, the dark interior became alternaliveljii; 
so-mber and bright, like the old masters' "Resurrectiont- 
day," w'here the fl?jmes and the shadows chase each othe« 
till finally the former prevail. 

The slugs had split and perforated the pipes — spirit 
sh'ot forth and caught fire in long crescents in the air. 
The receptacles began to explode and boil over — ^the 
sparks fell from, the woodwork and the tongues of fire 
wound around the worms. Those monks who bad rushed 
to the scene recoiled at the several doors, for the draf* 
turned toward them and scorched their frightened 
visages. 

The hall was full of thin smoke and thick flame ; on th'« 
floor writhed Anselmo, half-stunned, trying to rise frona 
the warm bath of alcohol. 



The Fugitive's Flight. 167 

Caesar (had, without intending it, been entangled in his 
robe, with which he reached the opening; instinctively, 
on feeling the frigid night air, he dragged this envelope 
up to his shoulders and covered his compromising attire 
as he fled. 

The starlight showed the wall cornice, with the fig 
twisting its boughs on the ledge. 

With the agility which he could not have suspected in 
one so tried and long fasting, he clambered up, and, with- 
out pausing on the top, where he afforded too good a 
mark for a gunshot, he dropped over. 

The ground was soft where he landed, and he had just 
sense enough to leap over the ditch. 

Then, seized with a panic, as an immense chorus in 
alarm and horror of the false monks rent the air, for the 
(hall was consuming like a bonfire drenched with turpen- 
tine, he fled at all speed. 

He had been seen, for he heard as the last intelligible 
cry: 

"There goes the Evil Spirit — he has fled with the souls 
of Nunez and Anselmo !"' 

There must have been two or three guards on the out- 
side, for without looking back, he was conscious that he 
was followed. 

He had the presence of mind to cry out: 

"Look to the house ! The preventive servants are 
upon 3'ou !" 

The desire to save himself was supplemented by that to 
regain his beloved, and thwart the villainy which he con- 
ceived to be rife. 

His cramps arjd palsies vanished. His head was as 
tlear as his limbs were supple. 

A deafening explosion sounded like an earthquake in 
the mountains. It was sparsely populated, yet seemed 



1 68 The Fugitive's Flight. 

fairly alive from every dweller having been brought to his 
door. 

He saw something speeding toward him, and stood to 
sell his repurchased freedom dearly, knife in hand. But 
it was only a horse, broken loose in the stable at the 
flash of fire and the explosion. He was too accomplished 
a cavalier not to know how to catch it by the trailing 
halter. He mounted agilely, and was immediately gal- 
loping toward the Madrid road. 

Thus it was that may be read: Report of Don Senor 
Agapetto, Alcalde of Valsierra, confirmed by sworn depo- 
sitions of worthy witnesses : It is established that the ap- 
parition which enkindled the serious conflagration in the 
Good Works Monastery, and bore away the souls of two 
of its lay-brothers, was the same unearthly horseman 
which carried off the body of the Count of Garofa, await- 
ing in pious hands interment, at the expense of his 
friends, at the said convent. 

Don Cassar foundered the borrowed steed, and was left 
ccvhausted under the wall of hunting-grounds, wliere he 
might have perished with cold and faintness but for a 
carriage coming up, drawn by four fine mules. 

This carriage, with a good deal of recrecy, was placed 
by a postern in the wall, while the servants opened the 
same and stood on the wait. 

The fugitive mustered the courage to ask alms, and, 
the domestics being good fellows, shared with the sup- 
posed runaway monk their flask of wine and bread and 
s'ausages. Thus refreshed, he listened while lolling witih 
his appetite gratified, to their chat of the Madrid news. 

Suddenly he started. He was galvanized. 

This carriage was newly decorated, and on the panels 
glitrered the arms of Garofa and Bazan. 

This house within the walls was t!he Marquis of Castel- 
lo-Rotondo's, a 'hunting-box presented to his dear master 



The Fugitive's Flight. 169 

of the pheasantry by the king, and the carnage was to 
transport his daughter, lately made Countess of Garofa, 
on a little trip. 

It was thus that, under the hood, tihe resuscitated Don 
C^sar begged charity of his startled cousin. 



CHAPTER XV. 

C^SAR AT AUCTION. 

'j'ose was stupefied at confronting "Don Csesar in 
search of his wife," as he plumply announced himself. 

It was not until after a pause that he faltered, while 
his visitor contemplated himself in the tall Venetian mir- 
rors : 

"You; is it you — not dead?" 

"I am bearing into your presence the vital part of my- 
self." 

"But how was your life saved?" 

"A string of miracles." 

"But who?" 

"Oh, I owe all to you, for saving me from the gibbet." 

"But you were still under the fire of the soldiers?" 

"Yes, I was under their fire, which still smells in my 
nostrils — that is quite true." 

"I saw you led out to execution." 

"I was led out martially and deferentially eve/L.'* 

"And I heard the guns go off." 

"I heard them, too," added the other, conrplacentlji 
"and at still closer hearing than your lordship,'' 

He patted his body tenderly. 

"I have the bullets somewhere." 

"Extracted from your person by a skixlfui surgeon?" 

"No, extracted by a — a person in my confidence " 

"But you fell?" 

"Like the dead, for I could not hurt the soldiers' feel- 
ings by showing that no one had hit the mark at cuch 
close range!" 

"Have I been cheated?" 



Cssar at Auction. 171 

'The Old Harry has. I can imagine him blotting- oufc 
the too-hasty entry of Garofa, Count Caesar, and ap- 
pending : 'A httle later !' The illusion was perfect — it 
took in several good judges, including a dandy of a doc- 
tor and two or three penitent friars. For a space, I was 
as good — that is, as bad as dead, and thought that it 
was all up with my creditors, unless you paid them out 
of my scraps of fortune!" 

Don Jose frowned. He was reflecting on who could 
have betrayed him. It was clear, from his brow not 
lightening, that he did not fix his suspicions on any one 
in particular. Lazarillo was not in the least under the 
ban. 

'Caesar, having scrutinized the noom, took an easy- 
chair and began to nurse one of his feet, like a gouty 
alderman. 

"There seems to be a junketing here? Music, flowers, 
fireworks, though where I came through I had a surfeit 
of fireworks." 

Don Jose shuddered and snifTed brimstone. 

"There is a festival, at which you are out of place. Da 
you not know you are in danger?" 

"I am inured to dangers. I believe it suits my con- 
stitution." 

"Oh, why did you drop in here?" stamping in annoy- 
ance. 

"Hang it! When a fellow is the sport of fortune, he 
must be dropped somewhere when she gets tired of him." 

"Oh, if I knew!" growled Jose, wringing his hands. 

"Patiemsa, as the good monks of the Good Works say," 
observed the uninvited guest, slowly, throwing up the 
other foot on the other knee, and chafing it leisurely. "I 
am- going to tell you, for it is a relief to be able to dis- 
course without haste, after playing mum-chance many 
hours. I v/as strolling about the country — ^pretty rugged 



172 Caesar at Auction. 

out this way — when I spied a newly-painted carriage 
come along. 'Oho/ said I, 'another of those upstarts 
setting up a coach and pair. I wonder whom the king 
has given letters patent to?' But, judge of the jump I 
gave on seeing my own arms on the panel " 

"Your arms?" 

"Quartered with the Round Tower of that old derelict, 
the NParquis of Castello-Rotondo. I reasoned that, as it 
was not mine, but still of my family, I ought to see its 
destination. It stopped out there, at a miserable, sneak- 
ing back entrance for so sumptuous a turnout. I 
learned from an obliging footboy, whom I certainly shall 
recommend to his master or mistress for promotion, that 
it was the Countess of Bazan's equipage! She has taste! 
Of course, when a man finds his wife's coach at a gate, 
he is privileged to enter where she abides. Hence, my 
dropping in. On account of my garments having lost 
their gloss and being torn with thorns and sullied with 
smoke, I hesitate, for I am really timid, dear coz, to cir- 
culate in this gay mansion, but I must wish good-morn- 
ing to my wife, and explain why I abruptly quitted her. 
iWhere is the countess, my fond kinsman, for I am 
pressed to disappear again, unless you are so much of the 
king's-man that you have called in that cursed edict 
anent the duelists." 

"It stands." He drew a free breath, for it was plain 
that the man, with every appearance of a hunted one, 
had not heard of the pardon. "Before I can do anything 
for you, I ought to hear your plans for the future." 

"To see my own lady, and her papa and mama, who 
will, no doubt, be in the skies to welcome me. I suppose 
this is her house, given by her parents. In that case, I 
am at home " 

"You dreadnaught, you are everywhere at home,** 
sighed his relative. 



Caesar at Auction. 173 

"I am taking possession. I wonder if it is free of 
mortgage — eh? For I think I know a Lombard, in the 
Jewelers lane, who would lend fairly upon this." 

Jose quivered with rage, which he dared not evince 
at this obstacle arising to oppose all his schemes. But 
the king was near, and it would have been pretty bold 
to send this man again to death while the royal pardon 
was lying on his breast. He was knitting his brow and 
wrestling with his disappointment, when the old marquis 
ambled into the room. 

"My guests never were so happy," ejaculated he, not 
seeing other than the prime minister at his entrance. 
"They do nothing but toast my wife and the Countess 
of Garofa." 

Caesar rose and gave the old noble a careful bow, 
which, by its utter elegance, foiled the tarnished wedding- 
6uit. 

"My wife, the countess, is a toast, is she? Hound my 
cats! I can sympathize with her, for I came pretty nigh 
to being a toast myself not so great a while ago." 

The host stared at the speaker, who he but dimly re- 
called. 

"Where is my lady?" 

"I declare," exclaimed the m-arquis. "This must be 
the son of my old friend, who was at King Philip's court. 
You are Don Caesar of Bazan, I believe? Yet, I heard 
that you were dead." 

"I am convalescent," returned the dashing don, with 
supreme politeness. 

Don Jose made haste to draw his muddling old con- 
federate to one side, and felt like administering a sound 
shaking. 

"Not a word — not another word,'* hissed he, in a voice 
which showed his unusual concern. "Show no astonish- 
ment at anything you see or hear, and do as I wish." 



174 Cssar at Auction, 

"My future! Oh, the pet dogs " 



"They shall be yours." Leaving the other stunned 
with the important promise, he returned to his cousin, 
who evinced no sign of stirring. 

"Such sacred rights as yours must be respected, and 
shall be here," said he, firmly "Your wife, the countess, 
being here, you shall meet without impediment or de- 
lay. Let me have the honor to conduct her to you!" 

"A mint of friendship this, cousin!" exclaimed the 
count, his eyes filling with bright tears, for he saw again 
the beautiful Maritana no longer in tawdry rags, but as 
the bride, than which he had never known a more perfect 
vision of loveliness. "What, marquis, are you going to 
leave me ! No, participate in my pleasure, for if I have 
found a wife of super-excellence, you, I hear, have found 
a peerless daughter." 

"My dear son " began the marquis, in perplexity^ 

as to how far he might go without Don Jose's permis- 
sion. "To find a son like you for my old age, in addi- 
tion to such a daughter, is like meeting with two sticks 
when one looked forward to walking about with one." 

"A stick, am I ! Well, this is pretty complimentary !" 

"Don't agitate yourself, boy!" continued the marquis, 
on seeing Cssar pace the room. "I know of old what it 
is to face a young and beautiful bride ! I had the ad- 
vantage of 3'^ou thirty years ago !" 

Don Jose had returned, leading in the Marchioness of 
Castello-Rotondo, trying to look as if she bad emerged 
from a dip in the Fountain of Youth. He darted a 
knowing glance, and gave a warning gesture toward the 
marquis. 

"Caesar, I have the. pleasure to present to you the 
Countess of Bazan !" 

"The countess ! my countess ?" uttered the expectant 
one, abaished at the wrinkled face. "I remembered her 



C^sar at Auction, 175 

as willowy — but this form is elderly ! I ought to have re- 
mained at the convent — I did not know what I was has- 
tening to !" 

The marquis was paralyzed by the substitution which 
the minister performed wit'h matchless effrontery. As 
the old dame smiled upon the young man, spite of his 
dilapidated toilet, her husband chafed. 

"Gad ! she simpers as if she liked the discourteous 
trick under my own roof!" 

"I know that one often plucks the thorn for the rose," 
moralized Csesar, under his breath, "but this is a hag of 
sixty — no wonder she wore an inch-thick veil !" 

The young gallant turned to the host, and added in a 
low tone : 

"As you are better acquainted with this mansion than 
I, will you kindly point out the shortest cut, out upon 
the king's roadF' 

"Don Csesar," said Jose, "the countess is prepared to 
fulfill such duties as are prescribed to her 1" 

"It is useless !" returned the 'happy O'ne. "I do no! 
claim any sacrifices on her part ! I should prefer another 
warrant of execution to my marriage certificate ! Make it 
out !" Retreating a little, and being stopped by the old 
marquis, he said: 

"Old fellow, you have 'had long experience, but did 
you ever fall in with such a gorgon ! Is she not fright- 
ful?" 

"Tastes differ, my son ! This young rake has 'had iiis 
sig^ht perverted as badly as his morals — he cannot see a 
beauty in any one, now !" 

"The countess awaits your determination," persisted 
Jose, in the belief that the stream had turned in his favor ; 
"she is ready to share your fate and fortune !" 

"Heaven's v/ill be undone !" cried the cavalier. "Lady 
fair, I will not take advantage of an accident, thougih 



Ij6 Csesar at Auction. 

charmed at the generosity of one willing to share the lot 
of so poor, so dunned, so black a hbertine ! to live with 
you ? ah, better for you I should wed the gallows !" 

"The lady knew your low condition when she con- 
semted to the union," observed the minister, 

"Did she? and did she know that — ahem! if that old 
fossil accepted this beldame from the gypsies as his 
daughter, and not his long-lost grandmother, then I — 
but," added he loudly, "I am not going to be outdone in 
generosity. Lady, I will not take you from those to 
whom years of diverted affection must be offered ! I free 
you from every tie which would hold you back from 
those to whom your charms, your lively company, and 
your simplicity, must recommend you ! Did you ever," 
he went on to the marquis, to give himself a countenance, 
for this was a Medusa, after his anticipations, "ever see 
such wrinkles?" 

"Wrinkles, you pert fellow ! where you see wrinkles, I 
see dimples, egad! wimples — I mean, dinkles — hang it! 
this perverse cousin of Don Jose's drives all sense out o^ 
me! But I must not break out and lose my temper— 
and the lapdogs !" 

"Perhaps, lady," resumed Don Czesar, trying to cover 
his retreat with honor, "at some distant time, some very 

distant time, I may " The marchioness turned to* 

ward him with such vivacity that he drew back as if a 
tigress was making its spring. "No, I can never shorten 
the distance between us ! My poor old friend of my 
father," proceeded he, as he again consulted the vacillat- 
ing noble, "as a reverend couinselor, let me ask you if 
you would, on any worldly consideration, entitle that ven- 
erable left-over from the Deluge, a wife?" 

"This is too much ! you malapert. If you do mot ap- 
prove of caviare to the general, you might abstain from 
scoffing at it before others !" 



Csesar at Auction. 177 

"Oh, do not let me stand in anybody else's way! 
Marry her off to some other fool !" 

Don Jose had pacified the marchioness, who was not 
highly pleased with the erratic conduct of the young 
count. 

It was necessary to end the imbroglio. 

"Don Caesar, you will know," said he, "that the object 
of this marriage was to transfer your title and no more?'* 

"That is a bargain by, which I am willing to stand 1" 

"At your nuptials you had not ten minutes to live !" 

"Oh, for the only happy ten minutes I have enjoyed!" 

*'The countess does not care for you !" 

"Wonderful fellow-feeling in man and wife !" 

"You cannot shake off the chains, but they will wear 
more lightly if gilded ! Your wife has become one in a 
rich family — you still possess nothing?" 

"My own steward could not estimate my financial 
standing more exactly!" 

"Quit Madrid forever, and you shall have six thousand 
piasters yearly !" 

"Six thousand only for ridding the capital of the bug- 
bear of the burghers, the nightmare of the cits' marrying 
mammas, the terror of the money-lenders and the despair 
of the tailors ! It is dog-cheap !" 

"Ten thousand then! eh, marquis : 

"I would give half out of my own purse to be quit of so 
dull and indiscriminating an Esau!" said Castello-Ro- 
tondo, eagerly. 

The marchioness said nothing, but s^he curled her lip 
till the red ilaked off, in her expressive disdain. 

"At ten thousand, going, going, going — no, I am not 
yet gone I Quit Madrid, the place of my birth ?" 

"The place where were incubated your debts !" 

"A'h, it is true ! It is no longer my home, but that of 
my dupes, my creditors ! I can break their coffers b/ 



178 Caesar at Auction. 

going ! This decides me ! And my last injunction should 
be, cousin, do not wipe out my liabilities !" 

"You must also renounce all rigihts acquired by your 
marriage !" pursued his relative, warily. 

"Forego the bliss of the fruit when it ripens — ah ! it is 
seedy already — it is a bargain, coz !" 

"Will you put your hand to paper to that eflfect?" said 
the tempter, delighted. 

"Dictate !" 

The marquis opened a flap of a table and showed within 
material for writing. Don Jose led his cousin, without 
any exertion, to the seat before it. He dictated: 

"Don Caesar of Bazan, Count of Garofa, etc., pledges 
his honor to quit Madrid forever!" 

Cjesar paused at the word and sighed; he was not 
thiuiking of the lady at their elbow, but of his creditors, 
whose last hope would thus flee with him. 

"And renounce the Countess of Bazan, 'his wife!" 

Csesiar did not glance at the lady; 'he was indelibly inp- 
pressed with her appearance, and wrote textually withouil 
a pause. 

"Never to claim the husband's place?" 

"Oh, never — the longest possible never!" 

"You have only to sign " 

But at "the Ca?s — " he ceased, for a footman, passing 
in the antechamber, was heard calling out: 

"The coach of the Countess of Bazan waits 1" And, 
thinking his mistress might be in this side room, he ven- 
tured to push open the door. It was due to this that 
Cassar, looking up, naturally perceived a ravishing ap- 
parition out there. 

Like a queen, surrounded by her minions and squires, 
Maritana, in her splendid dress, worn with the air of in- 
Ibom gentilit}', slowly sailed down the passage, acclaimed 
by the young gallant whom she had fascinated in her new 



Cassar at Auction. 1 79 

part as deeply as when she had danced and dinked the 

tambourine on the plaza. 

"Maritana!" shouted Caesar, springing up and drench- 
ing the paper with the over-set inkdish. "What do I 
see?" 

Jose flung himself across his path. The marquis hur- 
riedly shoved the door back and eclipsed the dazzling 
vision. 

"Stay — your signature! You have pledged your word!" 

"Fraud ! I see the trick !" He rent the splashed paper 
into shreds. "So much for that infamous document!" 

"My poor girl !" moaned the marchioness, trying to re^ 
member in what attitude one should fall, if executing a 
ladylike and juvenile swoon. 

"Bring in the footmen !" said Jose to the marquis. 

The old man disappeared with his wife, foreseeing a 
tempest and glad to be out of its reach. 

Jose held his ground before the closed door. 

"You must remember that you are a doomed criminal," 
said he, red in the face, but white in the lips, struggling 
between fury and doubts, "and that when those servants 
arrive, one word from the prime man in Spain, would be 
the death signal for you !" 

"Ah, a rogue has a rogue's mind! By help of San 
Jago, we may yet come out with flying colors! I can 
cope with you better when you drop the mask !" 

The patter of feet was heard in the corridor. There 
was a trumpet blast in the gardens, and it was to be sur- 
mised that the soldiery, at hand when the royal presence 
,was immediate, would be at his minister's orders. 

"Flight is still possible," said he, his eyes bloodshot, 
**I will aid my kinsman on one condition !" 

The reckless rover drew himself up to his full height. 
At that time he was brim with nobility, and his fine 



i8o Csesar at Auction. 

honor emerged unsullied from the contest with mer- 
cenary moves. 

"No more shameful propositions," said he, haug^htily. 

He took a forward step toward the lobby, where had 
passed the retinue of beauty and fashion, enframing his 
wife — the real one. His Maritana! 

"Be warned," stammered Don Jose, for he felt power- 
less with all his might against this man to whom death 
yvsLS an old and idle tale. "Follow your wife another 
pace and it will precipitate you to destruction !" 

"My wife!" cried Caesar, with exultation. "You lend 
me the spur! It is, indeed, my darling wife — my long- 
loved Maritana ! Give free passage to the Count of Gar- 
ofa going to present his devotion to his countess, or I 
shall owe the law another life !" 

He was weaponless, but such was his intrepid advance 
that his opponent feared to draw on him, and being pushed 
aside as if he were a lackey, stood trembling with con- 
flicting emotions, as the daring one burst open a wing 
of the door and flew out of the room. At the last words, 
the corridor had been choked up with servants and a few 
of the royal guards in half-uniform. If the stranger had 
been in any other garb than the Church's, no doubt they 
would have seized him without any explicit orders. But 
the cowl was sacred as a crown — the gown as appalling 
as the steel coat, if not inspiring the terror of a hundred 
years before, in faithful Spain. All fell back, and some, 
with force of habit, bowed to receive the benediction. 

Csesar reached the top of the great stairs, when his 
enemy, recovering from his panic, dashed out in the same 
course. 

His way was impeded by the throng, and, foaming at 
the mouth as one in an epileptic fit he could just falter: 

"That man! Pursue him! Soldiers, if he resist, fire 
tipon him I" 



Cassar at Auction. |8| 

But even so soon the fugitive had descended the noble 
stairs by the schoolboy trick of sliding down the broad 
and polished balustrade. From the bottom., beside the fat 
hall porter's chair, he sent back a demoniacal shout of 
laug-hter. 

"But a priest — a priest, excellency I" objected the lieu- 
t<?nant commanding" the guards, 

"Fire on him like a boor!" 

But the desperate man, light and active as a buck, had 
already cleft the mob of footmen on the steps and vanished 
•19 if his previous unearthly friend, by superstition, ha(} 
once more flown to his aid. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE despot's WILU 

Jose of Santarem quitted the brilliant grounds with 
nothing but the shadow accompanying him. 

In all his ascent of that path replete with difficulties 
,which the statesman knows, he had never been so clearly 
aware of his treading between the precipices. 

•Maritana, spite of her ambition, was no longer the same 
ductile metal since she had perceived by instinct that it 
was Don Caesar, her first and only love, v/ho had stood 
beside her in the prison chapel. 

Don Csesar was not only not dead but capable of cross- 
ing his course at all undesirable moments. It could not 
long be concealed from him that the king had granted him 
pardon. 

"As for the king, this selection of our Lord Don Philip,'* 
mused the politician, as he rode mechanically, "I cannot 
make of him what I will, I fear. He is dough that has be- 
come stone. He imitates his sire so well at times that I 
perceive that he may do a great deed, almost a good one, 
out of something naturally commendable in his heart. Pie 
forgave Don Caesar in tlie teeth of his own edict, because 
he was clement. He would strike me from my place if 
he knew all, because he would see it was justice. He is 
generous, for he has, for this whim toward the gypsy 
girl, let me open purse after purse, and he will not fiddle 
over the details. But the amours of a monarch are 
ephemeral ! Besides, the queen would never be pushed 
oft the throne to m.ake way for even a marquis' daughter. 
She will remain queen and Maritana will never reign, like 



The Despot's Will. l8^ 

die fair Gabrielle in France or Jane Shore in England. I 
must fan his flame ; not throw cold water upon it !" 

He was compelled to match his cousin in speed, and he 
was backed with unlimited means. 

Maritana, put in the carriage, and escorted strongly, 
was on the way to the destination which he had chosen. 

The king, whetted by the brief glance at her, arrayed! 
as became a king's fancy, was notified by a sure messen- 
ger where he might find the lady without any further 
hindrances to the suit. 

The queen, retired to the palace of Aranjuez, which 13 
on the border of what is called Toledo Province now, was 
also apprised by a confidential courier that Don Jose, car- 
rying out his promise to inform her on her husband's ab- 
sences, would this night convey proof of that infidelity. 

Double, treble traitor, not believing at last that Mari- 
tana would be his tool or that anything in his power 
would reduce Don Csesar to submission, he concluded to 
make the queen such a proposition as in her jealousy she 
would accept. 

"She shall ruin the king and accept my sole guidance. 
I will see that the king occupies the throne no more and 
that he is relegated to a monastery ! Into his place I will 
lead over the frontier the new Charles the Eighth, who 
will, for my breaking down barriers that the emperor con- 
siders impassable, reward me with the prime ministership 
in perpetuity and a bonus of a princely revenue ! I have 
my eye, too, on half Andalusia being sliced off into a 
principality whereupon I should be Prince of Sevilla 1" 

A night bird screamed and his horse tripped. But he 
was too absorbed and, on the whole, relieved by his plan 
to notice the omen. 

At the gateway, where the horse had halted and his 
escort looked inquiringly at him, a man, armed with an 
arquebus, confronted the party. ^ 



I84 The Despot's Will. 

" 'Santarem !' I compliment you on your jfood ward, 
Lazarillo!" cried Don Jose, assuming a pleased tone as 
he was helped out of the saddle by his groom. 

Lazarillo, for it was the page transferred to the prime 
minister's private service, gave the word for the porter to 
open the door, but only the master entered. 

In the hallway he paused and shook off the dust, asking 
impatiently : 

"Is the house in good condition?" 

It was one of those small houses like a fort, more Moor- 
ish than even in Morocco, with small windows and thick 
walls, capable of standing a siege without great guns to 
batter it. It stood in a grove of chestnuts-and had a small 
garden walled in. Broken potsherds glittered on the cop- 
ing, embedded in cement. 

"The house, my lord," replied the young varlet, smiling, 
"is fully fitted, though the time was short. On the other 
hand, there was an army of furnishers. I could no less 
than goad tliem on, since the tenant was a lady and one 
in whom your excellency takes a deep interest." 

"Boy, her welfare is second to none!" said he, enig- 
matically. 

"Oh, is it the queen?" muttered the bright youth. 
"What mysterious intrigues! It is bad for the poor, 
humble finger which gets into the hinges of these palace 
doors 1" 

"Has the dame arrived ?" 

"Yes, my lord ; and she was shown at once to her suite 
of rooms, on the next floor." 

"Did her servants rem.ain " 

"They took the horses and carriage straight away — I, 
presume back to Madrid." 

"Don't assume anything." 

**Am I to announce your lordship?" said the youth, 
timidly. 



The Despot's Will. 185 

"Oh, no, I have no curiosity !" but his tremulous lips 
helied him. 

"Can you recall the caballero, a. little pale but with 
grand manners, who used to call at my private house in 
the royal road ?" 

"For once or twice I saw him, despite a mask. I can, 
no doubt, recall him — he had a lofty air, though cold !" 

"Besides, he will bear a token. He will say 'seven' to 
your challenge of 'Carlos.' " 

"Joy," thought the boy. "It is the king, our master! 
Oh, my good lord is going to reconcile the king with the 
queen — this is some lady of hers who is to conduct the 
reunion !" 

"You seem merry ?" 

"Master, I am like the poacher's boy — he begins to 
laugh when his master prepares the springs and traps — • 
he knows there will be a feast when the capture is made !" 

"You are the lad after my own heart ! Good ! It is a 
trap! But the game steps in willingly!" 

"I am to admit the pale gentleman?" 

"And no other." 

"If they present themselves?" 

"Use, to good advantage, the -fine arquebus with which 
I see you are supplied. You understand it?" 

"I was a gunsmith by trade, sir!" 

"Good ! Yet you may tell the lady that I have called." 

He lingered at the door after he had dismissed his fol- 
lowers to a little distance to await him. While so en- 
gaged, he heard a peculiar blast on a hunting-horn at a 
distance. The notes were those sounded when a royal 
stag is sighted in a chase. 

"Aha!" said he, joyously, "all flourishes famously! It 
is my king — ^my dupe !" 

In the hall the porter bowed to him ; on the stairs two 
footmen holding candles bowed. On the landing a third 



l86 The Despot's Will. 

servant, also with a' candle, indicated in silence the en- 
trance to the lady's rooms. 

Maritana must have been waiting, for what was to 
come, with impatience no longer to be controlled. For 
at the sound she opened the door with her own hand. 

She receded and showed her disappointment, though 
what more desirable visitor she could expect is a puzzle. 

Love hopes the impossible will come; thus it is that it 
is never surprised. 

"Ah," said she, curtesying to conceal her vexation, "the 
Marquis of Santarem !" 

"Only the marquis. I am happy to see that you are 
luxuriously lodged, but it is but a hovel to the casket 
which should comprise such a jevv^el. Is there anything 
lacking?" 

"Nothing, nothing, I thank your lordship!" she for- 
mally returned, as if to abridge this interview. 

"So your brilliant visions are realized?" 

She bowed. 

"Y'ou have a title .not surpassed, an entourage of 
splendor, and the homage of all who near you ! I think 
I have kept my promises as the wizards of your early 
acquaintance seldom do !" 

"You have done so, my lord marquis. Do to the state, 
which longs for peace, what you have done for poor Mari- 
tana, and the country will long bless such a premier 1" 

"Ah, d<o you study politics? Cease — it is a study which 
m.akes the brain acne, which causes one to shed tears 
while shedding blessings on the ungrateful people !" 

Maritana surprised him by weeping. 

At this unexpected mourning he felt not only that he 
had a heart, but that she owned it. She had continued to 
spell him>, although expediency told him that he must not 
be the king's rival — not because he feared him, but be- 



The Despot's Will. 187 

cause to love another than the queen would hurl Jose 
from his elevation, only to be fortified by her. 

"Do you think, then, that I am ungrateful to the queen, 
whose faithful agent you are?" sobbed she. "But I sigh 
amid all this gaud and glitter for the hours when I was 
free and happy !" 

"I doubt you, lady ; you sigh for the hour when you 
first assumed the trammels of matrimony ! But I do not 
read your heart to cross its impulses ! I have come to 
usher in one who will dry your eyes and exhilarate your 
dwindling heart ! Farewell — I cap your dreams — I pre- 
sent your beloved mate !" 

Maritana wiped her eyes. In that brief interval when, 
the cambric passed over her sight a change took place : 
where the minister had stood another figure replaced him. 

Maritana was under the eyes of Carlos of Spain. 

This time, confused and oppressed, because it was not 
Csesar who faced her^ he had the leisure to contemplate so 
much loveliness, which the transient grief only enhanced, 
as a veil of spray redoubles the vivid gleam of the water- 
fall. 

Carlos had a bright side to his passion, not commonly 
seen on his prematurely grave visage. He was handsome 
of his saturnine kind and equal to the ideal which many 
women as fair as she worshiped. 

"Maritana!" said he, in his sweetest voice, such as his 
queen had not recently heard at that pitch. 

Incensed by the fleeting view at the Castello-Rotondo's 
he was ravished by this uninterrupted meeting. 

If Don Jose had demanded anything now he would 
have had the ready assent. 

The voice, however, gentle and v/inning, made her 
quiver, 

"Why do you not speak? Ah, each day will be a new 
life to me ! But }^u do not approach 1" 



l88 The Despot's Will. 

On the contrary, she retired, slowly but =;teadily, like a 
peasant girl held in the bushes by a reptile's fascinating 
eye, moving back and praying for assistance. 

He followed and took her hand; it was cold. He 
looked into her eyes ; they were lusterless. He looked at 
her lips ; they fluttered, and her words were scarcely 
audible ; she could not articulate. 

"What a chilling greeting! Has Don Jose given up to 
me one of those wax images into which the necromancers 
instill a passing breath of life?" 

He was so angered that if his mymidon had been pres- 
ent, this time, he would have sent thim into a dungeon.. 

"Are you not happy, thanks to me ?" 

"Happy !" was the hollow echo. "How can I answer 
you? Everything is so strange around me! My sudden 
discovery of parents — my still stranger marriage ! I may 
be noble, but still something tells me that between us 
gapes a gulf as wide as separates the baseborn and the 
hidalgo. I feel that you are Don Jose's superior! I 
dare not raise my eyes to one who daunts me ! What 
makes him speak to you with bated breath?" 

"Fear me! your bound one! your courtier! fear?" but 
the haug-htiness in his accents was uncontrollable. He 
wished to command affection on finding that it was not 
spontaneously his. "Oh, girl, you are wronging love by 
regarding me with such feelings ! Your devotee adores 
you, and would sacrifice so much to hear that this love is 
returned, hke his is ofiered, unstintedly !" 

He snatched up her hand and kissed it, thouglh the 
coldness again repelled him. 

"By all the saints who wear crowns," cried out the dis- 
concerted monarch, "there is deceit here — ^^has that Jose 
deceived me?" 

"I believe," said Maritana, lifting 'her tearful eyes, 
"that it is I who have been deceived." 



The Despot's Will. 18? 

He looked at her, deigning to inquire and so far give 
his confidence. 

"I have been deceived by that ceremony. That man 
who stood beside me was not your wraith — but one I 
knew! A gentleman outlawed and penniless, but ever 
brave and high-minded. His sword was no longer gilded, 
but it flew out at the call of the weak and oppressed. He 
might have been the king in the ghetto — he was bowed 
down to by the gypsy, who does not bend his head to 
every one, let me tell you ! While his voice spoke up for 
the injured and friendless, it was also leader in the gen- 
eral mirth. An eagle with the tune of a lark — a wan- 
derer like myself, my heart accompanied his in its erratic 
flights ! I had no substantial reason then to suspect my 
birth was equal to his, but I hoped that as we met upon 
the level at the holy altar, he would remember that I 
had held my worthiness in the past, and he might expect 
his wife to stand as firmly in the future." 

"You married to be blessed in this world. You shall 
■h'ave your intention accomplished. My word on that ! 
Every luxury shall minister to you. My love shall be so 
prodigal that you must return my unique ardor !" 

She had retreated as he advanced, till the tapestry on 
the wall was flattened to it by her pressure. 

"Do not touch me !" gasped she, with a beginning of 
loathing at his cowardice, which smote him acutely. 

"I understand," said he, lowering his hand and stiffen- 
ing himself with wounded pride. "You do not love me; 
not because I am unworthy — but because you love an- 
other! Maritana, your tribe are known to pretend v/ith 
unparalleled art ! Your heart beat for gain, for the pleas- 
ure of beguiling, with no true passion or earnest desire ! 
Have I raised you so high to leave you usurping an uni- 
<leserved position ? Oh, dO' not think that I would throw 
you down from your pedestal, owed entirely to me! 



190 The Despot's Will. 

Enough th'at now you must go to your chamiber! Yoii 
will learn before long what duty you owe your lord 
and master!" 

He pronounced the words so commandingly that she 
shuddered as when the herald announces the will of the 
despot. 

"Sir, you have reason for your anger, if you have been 
deceived," returned she, gently, for she felt that she was 
causing sorrow, and she was compassionate to a brother- 
sufferer. "I obey you for methinks that is a duty, in- 
deed ! I obey the lord and the master!" 

The king watched her leave the room with relentmenit. 

"Has Don Jose let her know too much ? Is she yield- 
ing or defying? Why should I hesitate? I will declare 
myself rather than lose her!" 

But he was stopped in the first step he was taking by 
the explosion of a firearm under the window. 

It was a critical time. Autocracy was tempered with 
assassination. It was foolish, in the conquest of a girl, to 
run the fire of a regicide on whose gun depended the suc- 
cession of the throne. 

Nevertheless, overcoming his short trepidation, he 
bravely proceeded to the window in order to look out and 
perceive the nature of the attack. But hardly had he set 
his hand to the frame, w*hich opened in halves, than an- 
other hand outside seconded his in the act. 

The opening disclosed a manly figure, which thrust one 
leg over the bar, and Vv^as followed immediately by the 
other. From the intruder, who instantly closed the 
sashes, came a gay voice, saying, without his looking at 
his helper: 

"Thanks, my boy ! That is a vile way to salute visitors 
of importance ! That marksman has carried away my 
new hat and feather! What the devil have I done to 
tiraw all shots into making me a target?' 



The Despot's Will. I9r 

This natural inquiry would have allowed any one ac- 
quainted with the most recent vicissitudes of Don Caesar 
de Bazan to recognize that gentleman. 

The king passed by him, and now, with his back to the 
window, could only stare. 

"Oh, I beg your pardon, sir!" continued the irrepress- 
ible don. "I took you for a brother to that awkward 
menial." 

Carlos did not resent this renewed impertinence other- 
wise than by questioning sternly : 

"A visitor — why enter by that casement?" 

"Because, simply, they had double-locked the door." 

"I am in no humor for jesting!" 

"No?" said the other, combing his locks with his fin* 
gers, a la Gitanio, "what a loss ! I am, always 1" 

"What is your motive?" 

"I was driven " 

"What devil drives " 

"An angel ! My motive is pardonable in any gentle- 
man's and Spaniard's eyes. The moon is just peeping 
out ! By its ray I spied a very pretty face at the next 
window, through the bars. I wanted to ask my way — to 
heaven — of which she seemed an inmate." 

"Audacious — you would speak with her?" 

"Sooner than to a churl ! I went up to the door where 
your porter, on whose rudeness I do not felicitate you! 
refused me admission. How was I to get in?" 

"Get out !" said Carlos, testily. 

"His very words — I wager he is instructed by your 
blunt lordship! I made the circuit of the house — ^the 
waills are topped with broken glass, and I would not 
damage my clothes any more! I spied this window, to 
which approach was not difficult when one 'has been a 
sailor and has scaled the carv^ed poop of an E?.st India- 
man treasure ship — but never mind that ! I mounted to 



192 The Despot's Will. 

the breach and you, with a kindness which redeem^s your 
surliness, opened to me. Your lackey's shot carried 
away my best hat ! Give me the address of your hatter 
in the city, and an order for a new one, and I will wear 
it in your honor !" 

"Sir, this is an insult !" 

"You are right ! Hospitality, one of the saints, I be- 
lieve, was grossly insulted in bombarding 'me !" 

"What business have you with this 1' dy ?" 

"Business ! you will not press — it is private — I wish to 
See her — to speak her, as we say at sea! That is the 
kernel of it." 

"Impertinent ! I desire you to quit this room !" 

"After having given your varlet the time to^ reload his 
barker? Then you, if you are the master " 

"I am the master of this house !" said Carlos, haught- 
ily. 

"Then the most complete means of your making 
amends for your guard's rudeness would be to walk down 
with me on your arm !" 

"You will more probably be walked out between the 
arms of my servants " 

"If you are master, then, I shall appeal to the mis- 
tress !" 

"Do you know there is a mistress?" 

"I saw a lady who is not accustomed to be the second 
in any house — il allude to the Countess of Garofa and 
Bazan." 

"Do you know a real high lady like that?" 

"Oh, my toilet? Oh, that is nothing — for I wore no 
other when I last parted with her esteemed father, the 
Marquis of Castello-Rotondo!" 

"I say," went on the king, imperiously, "do you have 
the honor to know the countess?" 

"Well, slightly, foj Our interview was just ten minutes 



The Despot's Will. 193 

in duration. But since you are the master — may I know 
your name?" 

The king was seized with a sudden thought as he was 
about to betray himself, goaded by this peerless im- 
pudence, and he replied: 

"I am Don Csesar de Ba^an, Count of Garofa!" 
His hearer, as we have begun to know, enjoyed a 
coolness rarely to be found in a dozen ordinary men, but 
at this declaration he puckered up his lips in a whistle 
which he did not sound. He made the eloquent gesture 
of offering the boaster a hat, which, we also know, he 
<lid not possess at the time. 

"Don Caesar de Bazan?" repeated he, overwhelmed, but 
not by the effect the speaker supposed. 

He gloried in the revelation, for it was startling: two 
phoenixes had arisen from the ashes of the original bird. 

The pause was broken by the entrance, rather rudely, 
of Lazarillo; he carried his still smoking gun in one hand 
and in the other the instruder's hat, which had a hole 
through it and the plume broken. 

The mutual recognition of page and transient master 
was quick, but with the silence of prudence which the 
boy had learned and in which the other had been a pro- 
ficient since long. 

"A fellow at whom I shot while mounting the wall 
and whose hat " began Laz-arillo, to cover his im- 
politeness. 

Caesar snatched the hat, and curiously examined it. 

"Thanks, my boy! Call on me for a Christmas pres- 
ent!" 

The king did not heed this paltry episode. 

"Now that I have satisfied you, sir!" said he, sternly; 
"accommodate me with your name!" 

"This unknown can give me points in bravado," 
thought the other; "what an unblushing rogue!" 



194 '^^e Despot's Will 

Lazarillo, while pretending to hold his gun in a d^ 
fensive pose, whispered to Garofa: 

"Good heed! It is the king!" 

At this portentous disclosure, Caesar understood all 
fnom a slight experience in this sort of clandestine amour 
familiar to courtiers. But thanks to his incredible seli- 
command, not a tint appeared on his cheek, not a crease 
corrugated his brow, and not a spark glittered in his 
eye. 

"My question embarrasses you," continued the king, 
which remark was not creditable to his powers of ob- 
servation. "I demand an answer!" 

"It is forthcoming!" 

With a lordly — nay, a kingly gesture — ^he waved Lazas- 
rillo from the room, and, seating himself, while ha 
clapped on his recovered sombrero, replied with income 
parable dignity: 

"If you are Don Caesar of Bazan, I am the King ol 
Spain!" 

"What?" faltered the other. "You— king " 

"King of both the Spains!" 

"You?" still protested the monarch, aghast at this 
counter-check. 

"As surely as you are Don Csesar of Bazan!" reiten*- 
ated the gallant in a voice both pleasant and taunting. 
"This will teach him to play with pointed tools!" thought 
he, delighted with his discomfiture. "Ah, it would as- 
tonish you, or any one, to see majesty unattended at the 
door of a pretty woman who is not the queen! But I 
assure you that there is nothing in it to surprise you. 
I was in the humdrums ! Our royal quacksolver gives it 
another and a more euphonious name, but it is the blue* 
devils all the same! Kings require relaxation elsewhero 
than in the cloister where my great ancestor sought it. 
But not a word of this amiable royal caprice," continueji 



The Despot's Will. 195 

he, lifting his hand chidingly. "Still, with a man of your 
fame for gallantry, I may rest satisfied it will go no 
further! You will not betray our secret, will you, 
C^sar?" 

The monarch almost cowered before this airy and sar- 
castic persiflage. He kept trying to remember who this 
could be whose manner was, while flippant, quite courtly, 
feathering the sharp shaft. 

"Let me see — I ought to recall something of our Don 
Caesar! He flourished in the court when I was younger 
than of late! Of course, a sovereign is bound to re- 
member all his subjects, especially those whom he ought 
to cherish with pride. A brave fellow in the camp, and 
a gay one in the court! I would that I were of his 
humor! He went a-duelling in sight of our royal com- 
mandment, and spitted a captain in the guards! It 
should teach me to hire none but masters-of-fence for 
6uch a post, and not a mere master of offence! His 
overset was humiliating to my colors, but it spoke vol- 
umes for the sprig's dexterity! Ah, I missed my man 
ivhen I did not ofifer him the captaincy of my body- 
guards! But I understood that he was shot for breaking 
the law, in the Corregidor's courtyard." 

He rose and strutted up and down the room, making 
his heels ring before, returning to face his baited prey, 
he went on: 

*'Do you mind answering me one little question: Be- 
ing Don Caesar, what right have you to flaunt your re- 
covered liveliness in my kingdom? You cannot be tried 
twice for the same ofifense, but you can be shot twice 1 
SThat is in the annals! But, bless you, last of the Baz- 
ans and Garofas ! we are not the sanguinary tyrants to 
betray you !" 

"Your majesty forgets himself " began the other. 

"That is possible. The keeper of the king's morals has 



196 The Despot's Will. 

g-one hunting with the royal remembrancer! But wKai: 
has our majesty forgotten? other than his purse — I have 
not a dollar ! by all that is coinable !" 

"You forget that Don Csesar might readily be alive, 
since he received pardon in full from your miajesty?" 

"Oh, did he?" He was moved. 

"I have the best of reasons for affirming that his par- 
don was duly issued, with all the forms, and that it 
reached the prison in time " 

"To tave him?" 



"Well, it got there at eight '* 

"And he was shot at seven !" 

It was the king's turn to utter lan emphatic "Indeed?" 

" \ es, and very deed ! I have the best of reasons for 
affirming that!" resumed the mock monarch. "He has 
grounds for pleading for an indemnity against so slow a 
messenger!" 

"Still, you see that it would be useless to shoot at a 
pardoned offender!" said the otlier. 

"As useless now as for me to wear a title which does 
not belong to me." 

"Gracious, d'on't say now that you are not the King ol 
Spain ?" 

"No? you half-suspected it, eh? Am I right?" 

"Then you are " 

This time, there was a knocking at the door. Laza- 
rillo was not going to make the blunder of entering with- 
out notice another time. 

"I sniff alguadls — the watch !" muttered Don Czesar. 
"Well, a pardoned man at his wife's door need not fear an 
army of tipstaffs ! I am " 

"Sire !" said LazariUo, venturing to interrupt, as Irei 
conceived the importance of his tidings, and kneeling 

down to the king, "a special courier " He handleil 

•him a sealed packet 



The Despot's Will. 197 

The king had no sooner read this message, than he 
lurned pale and he muttered "Treason !" 

He was informed that the queen, come to Aranjuez, 
knew of his absence at the Ma: juis of Castello-Rotondo's, 
and was seeking him there and elsewhere. The "else- 
where" was what pierced him to the quick. He had no 
time for jesting now. 

In this perilous instant, when he was the shuttlecock 
for Austria and France, to have another bat in the air, 
eager to stril. um, was disheartening. 

He beckoned imperatively to Lazarillo, whom he only 
knew, from hi.- position in the house, as Don Jose's 
trusted servant. 

"See that I have a horse ready. And do not let that 
man quit your s-ght. Learn his true name and condition, 
and keep him he leash!" 

The younc^ man nodded respectfully, and exdhanged a 
glance of s^-olimated intelligence with his former master, 
SPk^ho did not hinder the king's hasty departure. 



CHAPTER XVII. 
*'you are my husband." 

The page turned round, as the door dosed, and tHejl 
heard the quick steps on the stairs, and surveyed the in- 
truder v/ith wondering eyes. 

"Can this be you, dear lord?" faltered he, half between 
joy and dread. 

"Yes, I am the man whom you, I think, rescued frora 
an unpleasant death — ^by mus'ket balls ! I did not like be- 
ing bored !" 

"Yes, I used my experience as a gunsmith to soma 
profit," confessed the youth, complacently. "I drew thai 
balls from the hand guns, so that unless you were per-" 
forated by the wads, you would remain unhurt. I was scX 
pleased when you took the feeble hint I ventured to givfli 
you, and dropped at the command to shoot." 

"Excellent, the hint, for I assure you that I meant to 
fall like a soldier, stiff and firm ; perforated." 

"Only I regret that I had a chance myself to spare yoti 
and yet I fired with ball !" 

Caesar smiled and put his finger in the bullethole which 
ventilated his.that. 

"Yes, you came but now very nearly to being my exe- 
cutioner !" 

"Bnt'^how could I dream that it was you, sir?" 

"I did not think you did — for you would never gel 
your arrears of wages if you had drilled me in the head. 
'Now, are you going to execute the royal orders as faith- 
fully this time — expel me ?" 

"Why, it is the royal order, as you say !" and the tKDgg 
drolly scratched his nose. 



*'You are my Husband" 199 

"If I refuse — if I resist, for I have lost my yielding dis- 
position ! the thorns and briars on my road recently 
have teasled my hair the wrong way !" 

"Resist, then ! my arquebus is unloaded, and you can 
take down one of those swords from the trophies." 

"I act on your hint 1" and the don, as if he had only 
come into his own, carefully selected the best of the 
swords, which, belonging to another age, decorated the 
wall in a panoply, 

"There is no one to oppose you. The servants are 
country loons chosen for their stupidity, and they take 
their orders from me, whom Don Jose left in sole 
charge." 

"You are a good page in my good books, henceforth !" 

"I am Don Caesar of Bazan's most faithful and obe- 
dient servant !" returned he, bowing. 

"Should I ever obtain riches " 

"Retain me in your service, my lord, I pray thee, until 
then — and after " 

"Service? you shall be major-domo — cock of the walk! 
and a dozen lackeys shall wait on you, hand and foot! 
But, Lazarillo," he went on, lowering his voice and im- 
pressing even more depth of feeling to it, "what about 
this lady in this house?" 

"She is in there." 

"I wish to see her — to apologize for my walking in here 
tinder fire of your cannon ! Yet an odd timidity — can 
you arrange to announce me ?" 

"I think, my lord, that the noise has excited her curios- 
ity. No doubt she hears us, and — on my faith! she is 
coming!" 

He ran to the inner door and opened it just as, on the 
ether side, Alaritana laid her hand on the door handle. 

It is vain lo try to express her surprise when, in this 
stranger, noisily making good his entry, she recognized 



200 '*You are my Husband." 

her old-time defender, her partner during the dancings 
time and the hfe-partner decided by Don Jose, when he 
thought to cut short his Hfe. 

"I am going to quiet the servants," said the page, softly 
leaving the room, with gladness, though he did not like 
the serious aspect of both the persons thus brought to- 
gether anew. 

"Well, lady fair," said Don Csesar, with a voice imper- 
fectly controlled, "we meet at last !" 

Spite of the tone being cool, she showed pleasure. 

"I managed the meeting not without some trouble and 
danger. I have been blown up, chased like a werewolf, 
hunted by police, peasants and soldiers, and fired on by a 
tolerably good, though young marksman. A high price 
to pay for this interview." 

"Still jesting, Don Csesar?" 

"Ever jesting — I shall no doubt die with a joke chok- 
ing me, and another will be found in my brain like the 
fowl's string of embryo eggs ! But I am no longer the 
carouser, 'the breakneck cavalier, the dancer land the 
merrymaker to the court of his ill-kempt majesty of 
Egypt, but the Count of Garofa, your husband, my lady, 
the countess." 

"I knew it was you all the while !" she broke forth', 
passionately. 

"I thought you would, if any one, ithough I began to 
doubt. But, Maritana, I know all." 

"Then, tell me, for I am bewildered." 

"You thought my death was certain !" She looked! 
puzzled. "But that did not check you on the road to the 
title you coveted since long back ! When you left the 
altar set up very appropriately as far as I, an outlaw, and 
you, a gypsy, were concerned, in a jail, you listened for 
the horrid sounds which were to bring death to me and 
liberty to you !" 



"You are my Husband." 201 

She stared horror-stricken at this unexpected censure. 

"It was a Hght price to pay for a name and rank 
which, however, thus you consigned to infamy!" 

"Why, this is bitter falsehood! I have never wronged 
my husband's memory, even in thought." She answered 
his haughty and severe glance with a tender one, "But, 
say what you will and in any key — I am blessed in my 
belief being confirmed by your lips that you are in fact 
my husband, for another claimed to have stood by me at 
the font, and has since called himself the true Don 
Caesar!" 

"I know that! I have met the impostor! Little did I 
think that I should ever be robbed, and then, by the 
King of Spain ! Oh, mockery ! he has a string of titles 
as long as from here to Trafalgar, and yet, insatiate ty- 
rant, he grasps my poor countship for what influence 
lies in it!" 

"Wliat do you mean by the king?" She shuddered to 
think that she had divined what presence was under that 
lofty and frigid mask. 

"Oh, the winner!" returned Bazan, with forced light- 
ness. "Royal wooers do not a-wooing go in vain!" 

"Wait! let us stand on firm ground. Your word 
against the king's. How am I to know to whom I was 
given by Don Jose? I would not ask him, for he is a 
liar!" 

"I agree with you, though he is my kin ! His royal 
friend makes two of a kind — that i's the latest court news 
— 'Straight as my sword." 

"Do you remember what words you parted with— • 
at the altar?" 

"I said something like 'I devote to your ladyship the 
rest of my existence!' I grant that they are unlike the 
last phrases which the old historians rounded off the 



202 ''You are my Husband." 

last moments of their heroes with, but it has the ad- 
vantage, such as it is, of being perfectly sincere/' 

"Those are the words my husband uttered in my ear— 
you are my husband!" 

But he did not hold up his arms to embrace her. 

"You are forgetting that I am above all a loyal sub- 
ject! Rat it! one does not shake ofif allegiance because 
a king has winked at his loved one — a royal brooks no 
rival, so that I must j'oin the ranks of the enemies of 
Spain in order to play at evens — perhaps, on the battle- 
field, I may strike at the helm which is surrounded by 
the crown !" 

"You would not turn traitor to do that! O'h, Don 
Caesar, husband mine!" she entreated, fervidly, "that 
would poorly repay my sufferings. If you hear me, you 
will not condemn me again, for you have, though I 
blame you not, judged me already. Do you not remenv 
ber when our dancing pleased the queen?" 

"And the king, and all the rest of the royal family!" 
jested he. 

"A nobleman came to me thereon and professed an in- 
terest in my welfare " 

"Old Rotella-Castondo — or whatever the old idiot's 
title is — but overlook that — the (old donkey — don — is 
your father!" 

"No, it was another — ^he told me that he was com- 
missioned by the queen to carry out her commands and 
to raise me to the elevation of countess. The means 
employed were " 

"Creditable and honorable — they would be," sneered 
Caesar, "if, as I sharply suspect, this go-between was my 
dear cousin — whom heaven confound and bring down!" 

"Yes, this time honorable, since I believed that in wed- 
ding you, I made one happy who had^professed a love 



*Tou are my Husband." 203 

for me! 'It was one for whom I felt more regard than 
for any other m-m-<man I ever m-m-met !" she sobbed. 

"If you are the marquis' daughter, you would not be 
a right gypsy — so you may not be deceiving me?" said 
the other, relenting. 

She knelt and grasped his hand, weeping on it. 

"Oh, my poor companion, my dear husband, I have 
been greedy in my pride — I did crave a lifting out of 
the slough! But I have been punished for rising, like 
the glowworm which is set upon the wall, where it is seen 
better by the admirer, but, when the sun comes, it is 
withered up into a dry shell ! I carry, like a gitana still, 
the steel to preserve my honor with life — but be thou 
the judge and the executioner, since we are united, and 
slay me if I am unfaithful!" 

"Fearful conditions, Maritana!" said he, pressing his 
brow and veiling his eyes. 

The doctrine was inculcated in him early that the king 
was the master, the possessor of all his subjects owned, 
as well life as honor, as well wealth as loved ones! 
Blacker than the death by the shots, by the rope, than 
all, was the scene of the scaffold draped with black, the 
burning brazier to consume the regicide's hand under 
his own eyes, the horses neighing and striving at their 
halters, which should tear the culprit to pieces, the heads- 
man with his knife to sever the joints, the pyre to bum 
up the very ashes of the "parricide royal." 

"It is murder," thought he, as if the judge over his fate 
had spoken. "And to kill a king is the worst of mur- 
ders !" 

"Do you think that I dare not abide the issue," con- 
tinued she, s'till kneeling but ceasing to weep. Indeed, her 
eyes were beaming up to him, as if he were looking down 
into two patches of sky. "Oh, my dearest lord, 5^u know 
not what passion has grown to, which blossomed at the 



204 **You are my Husband." 

altar, but had its green leaf and its bud when we were 
proscripts together and all the world our enemy I Since 
then, the hours of fear and self-reproach which I have 
undergone have made your image an idol to my heart of 
hearts !" 

There was a flow of eloquence in her which seemed im- 
possible in one brought up among the degenerate herd. 

He caught her up and embraced her as if they had been 
parted for an eternity and this was the last and only time 
they should meet. 

He believed her. He became eloquent in turn and 
poured out his resolve, formed ever so many times, but 
being without an object, never begun in execution. He 
promised her that the racketty adventurer was no more 
that he had died under the blank cartridge of the arque- 
busiers and that it was Cse&ar, Count of Garofa and 
Bazan, who survived, bent on removing the blemishes 
from his coat, and becoming wholly worthy of a woman 
so beautiful and so true. 

Suddenly there was an alarm. Lazarillo had again 
fired his gun, but as they heard the ball whizz past the 
window, they conjectured that it was a warning merely — 
that he had fired in the air. 

They heard it as if it were a death-knell, however. 

They heard, too, the regular beat of a drum, and a fife 
piped the notes to its dull burden. 

There was no need to peep out to ascertain the cause. 

"I see soldiers," said Caesar, trying if the old sword he 
had taken would play easily in the sheath. "It is a bad 
lookout !" 

'Tf there be time, fliee! Save yourself!" cried Mari- 
tana. 

"Flee when a king replaces me at your door?" queried 
he, with blazing eye and reddened cheek, from which 
hers drew the flame. 



**You are my Husband." 205 

"I can die here as well as if I saw you slain, and then 
put myself to death," said she, steadily. "Let us think !" 

"Oh, others have done the thinking — 'that scoundrelly 
Jose, for example — I must act. As long as my heart im- 
pels my hand, and this blade clings to the handle, I shall 
do!" 

"No, this is rash. I cannot live without you, so we 
both must be saved ! I see no hope but in my sole friend ! 
Caesar, to the queen !" 

"The queen?" 

"She promised me her aid. As one offers a high price 
for a toy that momentarily pleases! She has forgotten 
you, as her lord his plight !" 

He had become misanthropical by the pressure of mis- 
adventures. 

"Tell her that I am in danger !" 

"Oh, you do not know great people — ^they are so small ! 
Yet I will do that ! But I shall be plain : she shall know 
what detains her lord ! Then, she will rescue you 1" 

"Now, go!" said she. "There is only Lazarillo under 
the window by which you scaled, and he " 

"He will miss me again ?" 

"I know how much I ask of you, who would sooner 
trust to a yard of steel than five feet of woman I But this 
is not seeking succor of a woman — it is a queen to whom 
you offer your arm to avenge ! And redeem your wife in 
shameful captivity." 

"By the spirits of all my forefathers back to Adam, I 
will bring you help !" 

He boldly ran to the casement, opened it as boldly, and, 
indeed, spying not a soul but the page beneath, climbed 
over the bar and let himself slide down by the iron pro- 
jections of waterspout, ornamental brackets and doortops 
to the ground. 

Lazarillo pointed to the wall, in a spot, whence he had 



2o6 "You are my Husband." 

cleared away the spikes and broken glass, and the young 
man bounded up a ladder, bestrode the parapet and 
jumped down. Lazarillo could not see more of him, but 
Maritana did at her higher point. 

Caesar, as if fresh from the pillow, darted off at the 
same time as a company of soldiers, sent to make the hold 
stronger, were admitted at the gateway on the road. 

"The queen," muttered the woman, incredulously, "may 
not be a kind heart, but she must be jealous, and I will 
rely on her jealousy rather than her promise to please !" 

She went to the nook where a sacred image opened out 
its arms holding the Redeemer, and she fell there and 
prayed. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 
A desperate; ride. 

Poor, blind mortals that we are ! It is one of our bit- 
terest afflictions that our horizon is so bounded, that our 
prescience is so dim and that we have none of those in- 
stincts by which wild beasts extricate themselves from 
traps which seem infrangible. 

Caesar had hardly begun his fresh journey when he 
lamented that he could not foresee what was to happen. 

He was stopped by hearing a horse neigh and others 
whinny for the companionship. He plunged off the 
highway into the underbrush and carefully proceeded. 

He soon spied a group of horses, forming a circle, 
since they were picketed by the head. Two or three 
men in arms guarded them. They had probably come 
with the soldiers seen to enter the lone house, but they 
had dismounted in order not to be embarrassed with 
their chargers in becoming the garrison around the lady. 

"Oh, if I oould detach one of those horses 1" thought he, 
worming his way toward the place with gypsy ingenuity, 
of which he had imbibed his share by habitual associa- 
tion. 

At last, near enough not to be seen, but yet to see all 
that happened, he reviewed the petty camp with a sol- 
dier's keenness and judgment. 

"Oh, these petardiers," said he, wondering. 

The petardiers, antetypes of the grenadiers, were meti 
charged with the desperate deed of blowing up obstacles, 
such as town gates, breaching walls and firing houses 
condemned as scenes of murders, treasons and atrocities, 
which should leave no trace. 



2o8 A Desperate Ride. 

He knew the uniform, marked by scarlet and yellow 
lace ; and, besides, in a metal case, over which one stood 
guard with a short musket, no doubt reposed some of 
the bags of powder, which were their main instruments. 

He counted them. Tjaere were six petardiers and their 
corporal; three or four others might belong to the cav- 
alry, of which the force had entered the house. These 
remained to care for the horses. 

Don Csesar sighed again and again for the horse by 
which he would lessen his fatigue and shorten the time to 
reach his goal. 

All at once a bright, an infernal idea seized him. 

"The Duke of Egypt has set me on this track !" mut- 
tered he. "I will attempt it, for those fellows are nod- 
ding — they have been roused in the barracks from slum^ 
ber, after a hearty meal. I believe that now I experience 
the novel sensation of being in love with my own wife. 
All will come easy for me. It is a great blessing to have 
an angel on the earth playing success to you." 

Groping in the wood, he soon discovered one of 
those long saplings which, after growing tall in the hope 
tx) catch a little air and Hght over the heads of the im- 
mense forcst-monarchs which loaded Spain at the period, 
die and dry off, but still retain toughness and elasticity. 
The one he seized was, as he conjectured, easily snapped 
off at the root. He had thus in his hands a long wand, 
terminating with gradual tapering and fine finish in a tip 
like a rush. 

It required great dexterity and the strength of wrist 
which he displayed in his fencing bouts to manipulate it. 

He dragged it with him, point foremost, and the butt 
noiselessly glided over the dead leaves, which lay thick 
over untold depth of vegetable detritus. 

He approached the camp from leeward, and was de- 
lighted that the horses did not neigh any more. 



A Desperate Ride. 209 

All he could remember of Arab cunning and gypsy pa- 
tience came to his aid. 

Thrusting the interminable rod before him, he let it 
slide, well hidden by the grass and weeds, toward the 
spot where the sentinel watched the case of explosives. 

Its advance was without sound and unseen. Nothing 
would mar the experiment but the chance step of a sol- 
dier toward it, and his being tripped up by it. Even then 
it would not be immediately suspected that a human 
hand had introduced it there, and the daring operator 
might make his escape. 

"I shall be no worse off than before," thought Caesar, 
methodically pushing the stick onward. 

Once he gave up all as lost. The fine point had met 
some obstacle, which snapped it partly off. The sentry 
heard the sound, for he looked off over the site of the 
mishap. He could not see the adventurer, thirty feet 
aloof, and he resumed his half-somnolent watch. 

This forming at the end of the pole a slight hook 
helped a good result. When Caesar audaciously touched 
the case of ammunition with it, this hook fastened itself 
in the strap by which the canister was carried. In con- 
sequence, when he gently drew it back, the thing fol- 
lowed the impulse. 

He suppressed his joy and continued the movement. 
The case aided him by rolling on the uneven ground, 
and only stopped in its revolution by entering into the 
embers of the half-burnt-out fire. 

Caesar had done all he could. 

"If the ashes are hot enough, they will fuse the metal 
or dissolve the solder, and out will pour the heated 
powder." 

He thanked Providence, for he believed that the pe- 
tards had been brought to blow up the house in case 



210 A Desperate Ride. 

there had been more than one invader there and the 
place had to be stormed. 

"Poor Marftana! she was almost living over Vesu- 
vius !" 

Having done with the long pole all that he intended, 
he crept in the same cautious mode in another direction 
and placed himself near the horses. He still bore upon 
him the knife which had served the sham monk to open 
his sackcloth when a "dead man" in the Good Works 
Monastery, and this was all he required for the second 
stage of his exploit. 

Luck was with him. Nobody noticed the case 
smoldering in the embers until itoo late. 

"Alerta !" cried a sleeper, awakened by accident, as he 
perceived that the canister had apparently been kicked 
into the imminent bed. "The powder — it is in the fire I" 

He himself sprang to remove it before too late, and he 
might have succeeded by the skin of his teeth, to quote 
the popular expression, but at his first step he stumbled 
on the pole and measured his length, his hands failing to 
reach the case by a full foot. 

At the same moment the heated object began to hiss, 
and the outbreak instantaneously followed. 

The powder caught as it spread in a sheet, and the fire, 
almost dead, became a glowing mass. 

The cinders, charcoal and ends of unbumt logs flew, 
blazing, and the glade was lighted up as at noonday ! 

"Chaos returned !" muttered Bazan, darting through 
the retreating soldiers, who did not try to drag their dar- 
ing companion by the heels from where his hair singed. 

He had previous:ly singled out the best of the horses^ a 
fine Andalnsian of Barbary stock, somewhat light, but u^ 
to his weight. It was saddled for war, and he had flK> 
difficulty in slinging himself across the back. 



A Desperate Ride. 21 1 

He galloped before he thought of sitting up and set- 
tling in the seat. 

Hooked to the pommel was a carbine, as it would be 
called now, such as the officers of some doubly-armed 
corps carried then in addition to their swords; it took 
the place of the modern revolver. 

The moment he sat up, a volley was fired on him, but 
ft was too hurried to be of avail. 

"Fools !" said he, "do you not know that I am in- 
vulnerable !" 

He disdained to return the shots. 

He looked back, but without slowing; the glade was a 
flame through which the soldiers were seen hindering the 
Other horses from running away after breaking their 
faalters, and helping their comrades out of the trap, be- 
ginning to burn where the fire had caught dry and 
resinous branches. 

He heard the bell at the lone houses tolling; it was 
feared there that the fire was a movement of an enemy 
coincident with the intruder's escape. 

"Pooh! they will not revenge themselves on a 
iwoman!" he reasoned to correct his impulse to return. 
*I must speed on my mission. I am bearing not merely 
the fate of my love, but that of Spain ! A kingdom will 
be divided unless I can prevent the breach opening." 

He had some hard riding to do over short cuts from 
roads to roads, and some of those tortuous rivulets to 
*oss which fed the headwaters of the Tagus. He reveled 
ki the pace, however, since it distracted his mind. 

No one accosted so desperate a rider. The peasants 
saluted ; the forest-rangers flung themselves back not to 
be ridden down, and the petty constables simply with- 
drew into the bushes until he had swept by. 

If he had been challenged, he meant to call out : "Er- 
fand of the king!" which had power to clear the high- 



212 A Desperate Ride. 

way. As for the other sort of detainers, the vagrants 
and gypsies, he was in possession of the charms to drive 
them afar. A word that he was going to get help for 
"their sister," the dancing-girl, would have sufficed. 

It was thus that he covered over twenty miles, which 
had brought out the good qualities of the Barb. 

Then pity seized him ; he left the animal at a post- 
house, declaimed his quality as Count of Garofa, and de- 
manded of the postmaster, on royal service, his besr 
horse. He was bearing a message from the king to the 
queen at Aranjuez. 

His costume was so rich that in spite of its being soiled 
and reduced to shreds, the postmaster believed the plea, 
and "charged it to the crown." With a fresh 'horse he 
traveled the rest of the journey without delay. He 
stopped at the old bridge on the Tagus, and, taking to 
walking, proceeded toward the palace. 

It was impregnable to an army. It was terribly im- 
posing and forbidding. It was, then, on a high land, lit- 
tle dominating over the deeply wooded country, bristling 
with fir-trees and pines, which had succeeded the oaks 
and chestnuts felled for its timber-work. 

The vales had been deepened by the extraction of 
stones for the walls and towers ; these quarries were half- 
filled with water, in which crawled monstrous reptiles. 
All was repellent ; the turrets, carrying brass culverins, 
loopholes for guns, ramparts with wall guns, iron port- 
cullis, turning-spikes on the copings, wide moats flooded 
with black water, and sentinels at every point ; to say 
nothing of patrols which continually made the circuit 
and appeared here and there where there was a connect- 
ing bulwark. 

'Tloly Mary, I shall never scale these walls of Baby- 
Ion!" he groaned, despairingly. 



A Desperate Ride. 213 

'Like a wolf, he began to prowl around the circumval- 
lation, growling and snarling like one. 

"I wager that Don Jose has been before me and put 
the watch on the qui vive! It is guarded as though the 
French had crossed the Duero ! Oh, if only he had the 
key to that gate, and its possession was on the point of 
his or my sword !" 

Speaking of swords, at that moment his own, bor- 
rowed without thought of how the belt would fit him, 
loosened itself like a snake and, assisted by his stumbhng, 
jumped out of the casing and not only fell on the ground, 
but rebounded and continued the flight like a living 
thing. 

Inanimate objects have these provoking traits at times. 

It slipped along and downward, and he feared for a 
ispace while he pursued, that it w^ould disappear in the 
ditch. 

Luckily or unluckily, it met with a hole, such as the 
monster rats bore in such moist hillocks, and vanished, 
as if a kobold's hand gripped it and pulled it into this 
burrow. 

"By my life; what a disaster!'* 

Unarmed, a swordsman is not a tithe of a man. He 
dropped on his knees and thrust his hand and arm into 
the cavity, at risk of being stung by some venomous 
thing. 

But at the pressure of his knees, the edge of the pit 
began to give way. Before he could catch at anything 
to restrain his following the blade, which still eluded him, 
he was standing waist deep in a hole, wet and slimy. 

"My clothes have stood a deal, but they are finished 
this time!" he humorously moaned. 

But he spied, by a gray beam of light, the sword lying 
on brick pavement, a little below where he had been 
Ghecked._^.- 



214 A Desperate Ride. 

"O'h, it is a subterranean passage!" said he, not sure 
whether he ought to rejoice or not. "I must have my 
sword anyway, whether it is the abode of an imp or 
Gnaw-well, the rat king !" 

On stooping to pick up the weapon, he perceived that 
it was on the floor of a tunnel stretching before him 
some twenty feet. 

It was large enough for him to walk througth, if he 
bent nearly double. 

Here was no mystery ; it was simply one of those cov- 
ered ways which, bored under the moat, enabled a for- 
lorn sortie to be made by a garrison if driven to that ex- 
tremity. 

Time and a late inundation from the mountains had 
scraped and washed off the earth from the surface and 
bared it so that the least shock, such as his step had given, 
revealed the secret. 

The vaulting was excellently done, for the cement, of 
Roman make, had prevented the least drop trickling 
through from the moat overhead. 

He could walk up to the palace walls without being 
wet-footed. 

He advanced, after girding on the sword more se- 
curely. 

He was in the castle wall now. The masons had sim- 
ply perforated it at this point and filled up the gap with 
two impenetrable iron doors. 

"Much be my gain !" muttered he, for this seemed a 
block to any further progress. 

Indeed, it would be a poor commander of a fort who, 
having a secret egress in case of the worst or to execute 
a sortie, should let his mode of communication set his 
defenses at naught, by falling into the knowledge of the 
foe. 

He was so sure that he had no power to shake- tiie 



A Desperate Ride. 215 

shield that he did not so much as lay his hand uipon the 
iron. 

But looking up with that appeal to the powers above 
habitual to the Christian, he perceived that above his 
head the vault was greatly high. 

The dark accumulated here and gave the altitude in- 
creased scope. 

"It is the bottom of a well — a dry well," he thought. 
"This is singular." 

His eyes, accustomed to the gloom, then could distin- 
guish that the upper portion of this vault was an oblong 
inclosure of marble, white, but looking gray. 

"It is miuch like a sarcophagus !" 

He began to reflect on what he had heard of the palace. 

He had never been in it; his comrades of the guard and 
court had brought back no reminiscences of the moun- 
tain, refuge. 

"It is a retiro without a story !" bewailed he. "I am 
in no man's land." 

Suddenly the great box overhead became illumined 
softly. The eflfect was beautiful; the chest was not of 
marble, but of alabaster. The pellucid gleam was sooth- 
ing to the eye after so much lack of light. 

He could discern that the object over him was an 
empty tomb of colossal proportions, sculptured finely 
within. The slab was set without cement and closed 
iwith its weight, so that no light could penetrate the crack. 

After the light appeared, no sound followed. 

He drove his sword into the interstices of the stone 
blocks and mounted on the handle, clinging to the asper- 
ities of the masonry as best he could. 

Thus his head was within the toimb ; he could make 
sure that his conjecture was correct. 

He was startled by hearing close to the marble, but 
istiil invisible, the hard breathing of a man who was pur- 



2i6 A Desperate Ride. 

suing some labor to which by his panting he vas protn 
ably unused. 

He was digging with a spade in the earth, at one end 
of the structure. 

"What idiot is this ? Making a grave w^hen there is a 
tomb already to his hand which would hold a family !" 

It is needless to say that his curiosity did not induce 
him to put an inquiry to this grave-digger. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE traitor's doom. 

Our hero had prudently pulled up his legs and propped 
himself within the sepulcher, and it was none too soon. 
The delver, assisted by the ground being tenacious and 
giving way in a lump, dropped it almost in a block. At 
the foot of the alabaster tomb, a great gap appeared, the 
dirt falling to the bottom, whence Caesar had lifted him- 
self in time. 

The digger looked in and down, and sighed with de-' 
light at the success of his undertaking. 

"Abund'ant," said he, laughing under his breath. 

"Great powers!" thought the hearer, "it is my precious 
cousin." 

This sufHced to seal his lips. His desire to pierce this 
mystery was sharpened. 

Don Jose, satisfied with his work, shaped the orifice a 
little regularly, patted it to firm it with the flat of the 
spade, and proceeded to cover the whole with some 
planks. The light came through their crevices, however, 
and Caesar began to believe that he should not be longer 
in the dark, at least. 

"There it is," murmured the plotter, easily; "the queen 
may come now and I will engage to hurl her down the 
hole if she assumes the virtuous and indignant tone with 
me, and does not accept my proposition in its entirety." 

He went away, leaving the light, and Caesar dwelt in 
horrible perplexity. 

Nevertheless, assured by the quiet and conceiving that 
the treacherous minister had gone to conduct the queen 
hither, he ventured all upon one die. 



2i8 The Traitor's Doom. 

He worked his way to the hole, as a chimney-swee|> 
moves, with elbows and knees, and removing one of the 
planks, b Idly risked his head through the aperture he 
made. 

He looked up and around in one of those imitations of 
classical round temples which had their vogue under the 
artistic Popes. 

Columns and pilasters, some antique, others modem, 
upheld a very good vault in the style of the ancient 
"lanterns." 

All was still; a rope torch burnt steadily in an iron 
socket by the open doorway. Caesar climbed out and 
replaced the plank. 

The tomb was not used as such ; it served as a table for 
an immense group of marble, partly antique, partly re- 
stored. 

A giant with merely a lion's hide wrapped round his 
loins was struggling with the several heads and arms of 
a monster, which might have been the sculptor's idea 
of an octopus ; at the back and side, seahorses and mer- 
men struggled, too, but which was friend and which foe 
to the wrestler was disputable. 

Garofa's classical lore was not stupendous; he ex- 
amined the statues without interest, and said: 

"Hercules and the Hydra, I think." 

Truth to tell, he was thinking of the struggle which 
he felt to be impending. 

"I am in the grotto, and my devilfish is returning!" 

He went and concealed himself in the creepers and 
woodbine which formed a screen between two of the 
columns. 

He heard voices in the darkened gardens, at the far 
end of which the castellated walls arose; the gleams of 
light from the torch streaked the darkness as they were 
emitted between the stone uprights. 



The Traitor's Doom. 219 

In one of these long rays the watcher saw two figures 
approaching. 

"It is my cousin, and he is leading the queen by the 
hand! The Santarems are in the lead, still, by Jove!" 

With all show of deference, almost humility, the mar- 
quis led the great lady within the artificial temple. 

The latter was not wasted, or blighted; passion had 
warmed and enlivened; she, perhaps, had a more ani- 
mated expression since jealousy stirred, than since she 
had discovered that her husband was false. 

She pretended a heedlessness to her risky position of 
according interviews of this private, ruinous nature which 
bewildered the count, one who with all his levity and 
scorn of conventionalities, had the Spaniard's esteem for 
rigidly constraining women. 

"Your lordship could not have chosen a fitter spot for 
our meeting," said she, with a sad smile; "for this is the 
remains gf the Temple of Fidius, god of treaties, disin- 
terred in the ruins of Tusculum. The Pope Clement 
sent the pieces hither as a present to King Philip ; but as 
they did not arrive until after the king's death, the frag- 
ments remained in their packings, until his successor, a 
Medici, fond of the arts, sent to Philip the Fourth this 
group, representing Hercules and the Hydra, or a sea 
monster, which was set up here under the restored fane 
by the Grand Duke of Florence's own sculptor, Piero 
Lacca." 

Jose had listened without more than glancing at the 
rehcs. 

"The Grand Duke Ferdinando had better have at- 
tended to his ov/n realm falling into ruins than set his 
artists to repairing those of old !" said he, incisively. 
"His estate, between the empire, France and the internal 
dissensions, was in the same dianrer as overhang us." 



220 The Traitors Doom. 

"You said that you bore news concerning my gypsy 
protegee?" said she, disoonnectedly, 

"Oh, that is a minor matter! Anything to obtain this 
serious interview! Your majesty knows by the gazettes 
which I forwarded to you by a safe hand in what misery 
this kingdom ferments?" 

"It is Hke that strong man in the many arms of the 
Hydra, but, take patience, it is strong and it will sur- 
mount them!" 

"Not without aid! Hercules did pretty well, but he 
was but a demi-god — it would require the gods to relieve 
tis of our foes! Instead of this prince, becoming young 
again by his turn of the tide, beguiled by necromancers 
and their agents, we must have a leader whose hand will 
strike powerfully, and not let a woman hang on it! Her- 
cules at the feet of Omphale ! Faugh !" 

"Omphale! Not Dejanira? Not his wife? Do you 
mistake?" 

"I mean, my lady, that Carlos is enthralled with a 
woman whom he is going to meet, going to a house out 
of the way, without attendants, alone!" 

He paused to give this dose of acid time to scorch its 
way in, to the bone. 

"You will conduct me there!" said she. "At once!" 

"Oh, there is no haste — for, at a word from you, it is 
he who will be parted forever from this decoy! In a 
monastery he will not meet g\'psies any more !" 

"This woman is a gypsy, eh?" 

"In the heart, if false papers seem to prove her a 
Christian born. But what matters all this? Can I write 
to those who eagerly await the reply that Charles will be 
forced oft the throne to give place to the appointee of the 
empire and France, and good wishers to Spanish pros- 
perity; ay, and propriety?" 

The queen made a wild gesture. 



The Traitor's Doom. 221 

"A fig for these state intrigues — at this time," said 
she, monopolized by her jealousy. "Let the two 
Charieses fight out their contest for the crown! Let me 
punish this viped which has stolen into my confidence — 
but, yet you have not named her!" 

"I thought your majesty guessed, from having felt a 
dread of her from first sight — aversion, hatred! It is that 
dancer who capers on the royal mantle, spread under her 
feet as a carpet!" 

"Maritana? You do not say that Maritana thus re- 
pays me for my offers to lift her out of that ditch!" 

"Oh, she is out of the ditch without your generous 
hand!" replied Jose, in an irritating tone. "That stupid 
old Castello-Rotondo has already been promoted for rec- 
ognizing her as his child ! He v/ould have recognized a 
rag doll, to be m.ade keeper of the king's spaniels!" 

"Maritana, the Countess of Castello-Rotondo?" 

"Oh, better than that, which is her bom title, thereby, 
for she has been married to the Count of Garofa, one of 
those complaisant panderers who would put his hand to 
any deed by which the king could cover his duplicity and 
iniquity!" 

"A mock marriage?" 

"All these proceedings are a mocking of your majesty, 
to be sure!" 

She went up and down, and at each turn smote the 
marble columns with her fan. 

"The king must be punished — these, his instruments of 
my woe, must be imprisoned, slain !" 

"All your will be done, majesty! Only give me the 
written warrant!" 

"I, the queen! Write — seal — sign " 

"I understand — you are not yet regent. Well, is there 
not a little slip of paper vdth the king's sign-manual 



222 The Traitor's Doom. 

which cooild be filled out for the chastisement of these 
wretches who aim at your peace?" 

"I should have thought that the prime minister would 
have been plentifully supplied with these orders in- 
blank?" said the queen, suspiciously. 

"Oh, my rank sits newly upon me — besides, having an 
idea that I would not approve of this treachery to his 
wife, he does not accord me the confidence which I praise 
your majesty for!" 

"Well, I am no second-rate liar," thought the listener, 
"but this cousin can give me cards and come out first 
by far!" 

"Well, I can find the warrant," said the queen. "In 
return, will you not guide me to confront tliis impudent 
disturber of my domestic peace?" 

"Assuredly. After this is confirmed, your majesty 
will listen to what has been arranged if your consent is 
ours!" 

"When I return, equipped for the journey — and, on 
the ride, we will come to a final understanding — I do not 
say agreement, yet!" 

"She loves her husband," muttered Jose. "This is 
untoward! I can do little with her! I must throw her 
over — that is, under! and by letting the king conserve 
his plaything make my bond stronger with him. Let 
Charles, the would-be Eighth, manage his own ap- 
proaches, then, as long as the Seventh is subservient to 
my enterprises!" 

He had ushered the queen to the doorway, and she 
rapidly disappeared in the garden. 

"She must die," sternly said Jose, thinking himself 
alone. "But I will not lay my hand on the Lord's 
anbinted! This pit hole will let her through to the 
ground, where she will break her crown!" 

"Here is a bloodthirsty premier for youl", thought the 



The Traitor's Doom. 22} 

hearer. "And yet, for the sake of the family, I must 
never boast of what a serpent I snapped in twain/' 

"Ten minutes to g-o to her rooms, ten to dress, ten to 
return, and within five she disappears in this grave, un- 
der the care of Seniors, Hercules and the Tritons! In 
half an hour one may overturn a succession!" 

"In less, one may upset a villain's pet schemes!" in- 
terrupted Don Csesar, stepping out and between the en- 
trance and the plotter. 

Satan touched by Ithuriel's spear could not have ex- 
pressed on his convulsed features greater desolation than 
Santarem's wore. 

"Yt>u !" his lips shaped without a sound issuing. "You 
again!" 

"It is I! You have heated a furnace by which you will 
singe your beard! You would war with women, would 
you? Destroy Maritana and also our queen because 
they balk your atrocious projects!" He drew the sword. 

Jose drew his. 

But his antagonist dashed it from his hand. 

"The sword? Flatter yourself, double traitor and 
coward that you are, to perish by the gentleman's 
weapon ?" 

Trembling with terror and thwarted hopes, fury en- 
kindled into making him heroic, Jose dashed to recover 
'his weapon. But on the way he perceived the bar v/ith 
which he had broken the ground for the pit. On seeing 
this, Caesar contemptuously took up the spade, sheathing 
his rapier. "You are a clown, and you should be com- 
batted with a cl'OAvn's weapon!" said he, scornfully. "I 
know all your ignominy! I am ashamed that you are 
tied by blood to us ! I sliall not only kill you, but bury 
you in this heathen temple, so that your soul will wander 
forever unannealed !" 

iT'he contest with the unaccustomed arms was rude as 



224 The Traitor's Doom. 

that of antediluvians. Bar and shape-shaft clashedt, and 
terrible blows were delivered and parried. 

The spade-blade was knocked off, and the bar was 
bent. 

"Oh, this resembles cudgel-play," said Caesar, recov- 
ering his loquacity as this became a more reasonable 
match. "Look ! this is for plotting against our lord the 
king!" He struck a blow which would have cleft his 
skull or broken the staff but for the bar held up with both 
hands. As it was, Jose bowed to the knees. 

The marquis began to groan with rage and pain. The 
other, bent on punishing, was striking him across the 
shoulders and the back at opportunities which his grow- 
ing weakness and blind fury gave freely. 

"This is for my wife !" said the count. 

The blow was a swinging one, with both hands coming 
together in the strike. Jose bit his howl in two, for fear 
of bringing assistance, which he could not hope would! 
be his, 'and threw the bar at his foe. 

Caesar warded it off so that it fell against the statues 
and beheaded a Triton. 

The head rolled down and bounded on Jose's foot. 

"Your head will lie beside it next!" said C^sar. *'See 
how chaff and corn fly asunder at the stroke of Justice!" 

But the tried stick broke at the blow on the other's 
bruised shoulder. He staggered back and, finding he 
hsd, in the changes of the duel, reached the spot where 
the iron bar had fallen, stooped to pick it up for a final 
effort. 

Cjesar grasped it at the same time. They faced each; 
other, the iron betw^een them. By his hand in this posi- 
tion, Jose felt the other's sword rap his knuckles. He 
uttered a joyous exclamation. With incredible renewal 
of fierceness, considering his bruises and loss of blood, 



The Traitor's Doom. 225 

he let go the bar with one hand, grasped the sword and 
drew it to him. 

Not expecting this, Bazan, losing his balance at the 
dropping of the iron a-t one end, swerved round a little. 
His breast was exposed to the hinge which was coming 
like lightning, when the heels of the villain, even as he be- 
gan to laugh victory, were sinking between the planks 
which he had placed loosely over the hole. He threw 
up both hands to recover his poise, but Caesar ihad swung 
the bar out from his grip. 

The stroke met the sword in its passage and carried it 
with it, so that, with his neck severed, Don Jose fell into 
the pit. 

There was a horrible, dull crash. Then, absolute 
silence. 

Csesar drew back, as if shot to the heart. He had for- 
gotten about the pitfall dug for another, and the disap- 
pearance had seemed providential. 

He kicked the parted planks close over the yawning 
gap as if he had committed a murder without justifica- 
tion. 

He retreated to the door, when he heard light, hurried 
footsteps. 

"Oh, madam, do not go further! There is blood — of a 
<:i'aitor in there !" 

"Don Jose's?" 

"Our poor marquis would have been a misleading 
guide! He has met with the cure for ambition! The 
only genuine remedy !" 

The lady peering within the rotunda perceived the de- 
tached head of the statue — it looked ghastly. 

"Oh, that? That is a harmless head — ^his is turning to 
stone and has reached Treaso^n's goal — the dirt and dust. 
Allow me to replace him!" 



226 The Traitor's Doom. 

"You ! Wait ! I have seen you — ^you were with those 
gypsies?" 

"I was with them, but not of them — my descent for- 
bid! I am Don Caesar de Bazan, Count of Garofa, and 
it is I who will conduct you to my wife, Maritana of 
Gapofa, who, I assure your majesty, to whom Heaven ac- 
cord long life to see how truly I speak, will bless you for 
coming to save her from a treacherous plot against her^ 
against your majesty and my lord the king!" 



CHAPTER XX. 

I/AUGHTER SUCCEEDS SORROW. 

The explosion of the petards had brought all the sol- 
diers in the residence of Maritana to the doors, where 
they were joined by the petardiers and their comrades. 
Ruefully, out of blackened lips, they reported by their 
corporal to the lieutenant the loss of their horses, which 
were scampering over the countryside. 

They could not account for the casualty, but Lazarillo 
could give a fair conjecture. He went to comfort his 
mistress, and assured her that her courier haid no doubt 
got off on one of the stampeded horses. 

Nevertheless, though she had parted with her beloved, 
showing a firm countenance, it fell when the page an- 
nounced the visit of the king. 

Lazarillo dared not remain, but he went with the less 
distress on knowinf; that Maritana retained of her former 
attire that knife in her garter without which no true 
Gitana, or false one, travels. 

Tlie king had inquired of the page less about the tu- 
mult of which he had heard little, than of the intruder. 
The youth confidently answered that he must have fled 
through the gardens and over the walls before the sol- 
diers came to mount guard. 

Maritana saluted the visitor with such formality that 
he bit his lips with vexation. 

"Who has dared betray me?" demanded he, throwing 
0& the mask. 

"Your majesty," boldly replied the countess, "he that 
betrayed you is the same who counseled you to commit 
a meanness congenial to him but beneath a monarch !" 



228 Laughter Succeeds Sorrow. 

"Whom do you allude to?" 

"The Marquis of Santarem, ostensibly !" 

"Aih !" 

"He has made a mock of your majesty, as he did ol 
heaven, by that deceit at the holy altar !" 

"Well, girl, I am your king. In sooth, my spirit has 
revolted at this trivial cheat. Now that you know who 
speaks, listen to me." 

"My lord, all is waste — all is lost — there is no love 
possible in me for you!" 

"All is lost, but the last thing one loses is hope!" 

"Oh, I hope; but that is almost forbidden to you!" 

"What still may I hope?" 

"That you will escape the penalty for your connivance 
with your prime minister! If in public matters he is 
villainous as in private business, then all will go ill with 
Spain !" 

"The penalty ! I incur any penalty !" 

"The severest, for you besmirch your queen! This 
suit ill suits one who has no right to complain of your 
consort ! I implore you to leave me while it is yet time !" 

"Bah I come all ! Come deatfi, since it is of my own 
choosing! I cannot leave you — ^you, who are the only 
one I ever loved !" 

"Carry your love where it is claimed. Show me only 
generosity, mercy ! Spare me and»this will be the bright- 
est jev/el in a crown!" 

"Oh, it is for you to claim jewels — I will have one 
token that I was not scorned !" 

He thought that she would appeal to the Madonna, 
and he was prepared to pluck her from that refuge, but, 
instead, she stood erect and, drawing a dagger from her 
knee, with a rapid movement, which was resolute and 
not devoid of grace, she threatened him, not herself. 

It was GO plaything, but one of those Navarese navajas 



Laughter Succeeds Sorrow. 229 

which can kill a bull by a slash across the thrcxat and a 
boar by a stab in the back of the chine. 

But he was more wounded by the repugnance whicfii 
tempered her derisive smile. 

"What !" said he, "am I loathesome to you ?" 

"You are nothing- to me — all my existence is bound up 
in one who must find his wife worthy of him or fit for the 
grave!" 

"Of whom speak you?" queried he, only too well 
guessing. 

"Of the Count of Garofa!" 

"That Don Caesar of Bazan ! That blackguard !'* 

"Ah ! if your white guards were as fixed on honor 1" 
^ "Why, he is dead !" 
' "Not at all 1" interposed a voice. 

Don Caesar entered jauntily by the door wliich Laza- 
rillo, in some degree emboldened by his return, held open 
to admit him. The corridor was filled with soldiers and 
servants, but the king was perplexed at recognizing the 
uniform of the Queen's Halberdiers. 

To add to his uneasiness, he heard quite a hubbub at 
the roadside ; a number of horse rode up and rapidly di»- 
tnounted. The house seemed thickly besieged. 

This fellow who so audaciously advanced might be the 
leader of one of those royal kidnaping expeditions not 
unprecedented on the annals. 

On seeing him, Maritana sheathed her dagger and ap- 
peared fully reassured. 

"My husband now will protect me!" said she. 

The king looked at "her husband," who, with the ut- 
most unconcern for his presence or his feelings, slammed 
the door in the many faces and locked it, and, doing th6 
eame with the inner door, took out the keys. 

"What are you doing, sir?" demanded he. 

"I have fastened the doors so that no one can entef— 



330 Laughter Succeeds Sorrow. 

and my page has orders to drive those back who migh^ 
as courtiers will do, glue their ears to the keyhole !" 

Don. Caesar had laid his hand on his sword, and he 
spoke fiercely, too, like one with whom the sword had 
always determined debates. 

"My lord," began he, "if my wife's persecutor had been 
a soldier and a peer oi myself, I fear that I should have 
denied him the honor of an encounter ! I believe that 
I should have dispatched him as we do a thief who enters 
our dovecote at midnight — of¥-hand! For in such ai 
case one does not look for reparation, but revenge! But 
we are here in face of a king, though a misbehaving one 
— I must disarm my revenge !" 

He drew his sword, but it was to present it to the king, 
by the point. 

"Yes, you are speaking to the King of Spain !" said the 
other, mastering a host of contesting emotions. 

"To whom else Vvould I speak in this strain? As we 
cannot always subdue the will or restrain the naturally- 
prompted hand, I will render both powerless !" He 
threw away the rapier. "But there must be atonement !" 

"Must? Atonement? But, go on — ^your audacity 
amuses me!" 

"Caesar," said Maritana, in a low voice, "remember 
that his wife loves him ! and she is my patroness !" 

"Yes, it is a loved king — but his subjects, his nobles, 
will not long love a king who 'gives up his love for un- 
equal sharing! Your power and that of your minister 
are combined against this poor, weak creature and her 
humble champion, but she has sought the protection ol 
her patroness, the queen !" 

This time the hearer quailed, and shook like a tower, 
long battered at. at last receiving the stroke which aflfects 
the heart. 



Laughter Succeeds Sorrow. 231 

"You see in me the queen's messenger from her palace 
of Aranguez." 

"You, the queen's messenger " 

"Better — or worse ! The queen's avant courier f" 

"Ha !" 

"Yes, you shall hear all ! The palace was strictly 
guarded. You should applaud her captain of guards, 
your governor of the castle. Denied admission, I fer- 
reted out an entrance unknown to the uninitiated. But 
how useful to a traitor !" 

"Oh, you ran into danger!" uttered Maritana. 

"Pshaw ! your husband is getting bullet-proof ! I har- 
bored myself in a Grecian temple " 

"The Temple of Hercules and the Hydra " 

"Yes, the same, only Caesar has killed the Hydra!" 

"Csesar? No, no!" 

"My story is the modem version', and will elucidate. 
my lord ! There came to confer, in this classical Ear o^ 
'Dionysius, two persons, courCier and lady oif the court, 
wihose remarks were worth my listening to, and you'r 
majesty's heeding." 

"Courtiers?" said fhe interested monarch. "High de- 
gree ?" 

"The highest ! One was tlie First Man of the King- 
dom " 

"Oh, Don Jose?' 

"And the other, the First Lady of the Land !" 

"My queen !" dismally. 

"The queen!" said Maritana, joyously. 

"The minister offered in plain words to make the lady 
the regent until Charles of Hapsburg should assume the 
throne as the Eighth of Spain!" 

"I will have Jose's head for this suggestion !" 

"It is already at your disposal, being detached from his 
body very timely, it now appears." 



232 Laughter Succeeds Sorrow. 

"They plotted such treason; they twO'?" 

"Oh, that was a trifle to what was next to come! The 
minister said that, meanwhile, by way of diversion, he 
would pilot the queen to this very house in the woods, 
where she would find that her husband was whiiing away 
the tedium of state in preferable company !" 

"Who dared to watch my movements " 

"The ex-minister of police ! the late minister of state !'* 

"The late? 'tis false! If it were true 1" He rusihed to 
the door, but Caesar held up the keys in his face, and 
jingled them. 

"Traitor !" 

"I remarked that reparation must accrue to me ! Do 
you understand me now ?" 

"On your allegiance — open that door!" 

"You cannot leave, for it is just — what wrong one does 
another should be reflected upon himself! I learned that 
among my practical tutors, the gypsies, who have several 
such jagged saws in their workshop." 

"Shall I command that door to be broken in?" 

"Scandal ; my lord, does not want too many witnesses'. 
That is how kings, who were miemorialized as saints, have 
been thrown off their pedestals by posterity, which such 
witnesses enlightened, later !" 

The king buried his face in his hands. 

All that he would have made Don Caesar suffer, he had 
turned upon his breast. He dared not cry for help. 
And at any moment his injured wife would condole with 
this other injured wife. 

He rose and commanded Cassar to open the door. 

The retribution was excruciating. 

"Take up your sword, sir !" said he then, in a strangled 
voice. 

He drew his own, and Maritana gathered herself to 
leap between. 



Laughter Succeeds Sorrow, 235 

"A king no longer, for your claim' — your treason equal- 
izes us ! Defend yourself, or you will make mc an as- 
sassin !" 

"It will be too late!" 

"Too late for what ? To save my fame unto my wife ?" 

"Pish ! I was not thinking of that ! Too late to punish 
my cousin !" 

"He must die, and you — but you first I Defend or I 
strike 1" 

"When did a Spanish nobleman hesitate in revenging 
an insult to his king and his queen ? Think yOu I would 
spare even my dear relative, one who would have made 
my dishonor the stepping-stone to his rise, and your in- 
carceration in a convent the smoothing of his road to the 
premiership of a foreigner? No, sire, I have taken your 
deathsman's place. Your honor is preserved, with your 
throne, and your fame ! It is now your turn to deal with 
mine !" 

He knelt on one knee and pointed to Maritana, who 
stood with firmness and eyes directed heavenward to 
await the decision. 

Carlos did not longer hesitate; the deliverance from 
Jose, whom he had never liked, pleased him so that he 
hardened his heart to its individual loss. He did not 
look at Maritana, who returned him this indifference in 
full coin, by the way, but held out his arms to the pleader 
siaying graciously enough, although it was a trial : 

"Rise, Count of Garofa!" 

Bazan gave one key to the lady, wiho used it to enter 
tier own rooms, and he opened the outer door with the 
other. 

An endless stream of courtiers poured in, and moie 
jvrould have come if the room had been capacious enough. 

iThey seemed surprised, for the word had passed that 



234 Laughter Succeeds Sorrow. 

there mig-ht be some shocking deception in this mys- 
terious abode. 

"It is the king!" was the cry. 

"Certainly, it is the king,'-' returned Charles, putting 
on that -summer-day face of monarchs who wish to hide 
contrariety, "we have inspected the country seat of our 
well-beloved Don Caesar, Count of Garofa, and esteem 
it meager accommodation for such a lady as his dame! 
So we desire him to move into the palace of the Governor 
of Valencia !" 

"Governor of Valencia!" repeated the surprised cour- 
tiers, mystified. 

"Yes, gentlemen," observed Don Caesar, to such as ht 
caught the eye of and were known to him, "the force 
of merit makes its m.odest way, you see!" 

Then, turning to the king, and leaning on his arm- 
chair with the assurance of an old favorite, he placidly re- 
marked : 

"If the governor's mansion at Barcelona, for Catalonia, 
is not imm.ovable, I should prefer his residence, my goo<i 
lord !" 

"Why Catalonia?" queried the king, with miare sur- 
prise than susceptibility. 

"Only that it is farthest from the capital, and so for-- 
fends my pursy creditors, ahem!" 

"Your creditors? Why, you may draw on my priyj- 
purse to annul your debts before you take office, of 
course !" 

"Hear, my king! }X)u do not know that that would 
require the state treasury!" 

"You are appointed Governor of Catalonia, then, and 
to defray your expenses, we transfer to you all the ap- 
pointments which should proceed toward our late prime 
minister and which, with his estate and possessions, are 
forfeit to the crown 1" 



Laughter Succeeds Sorrow. 255 

"The late prime minister?" muttered all voices, amazed! 
at the absence of the Marquis of Santarem from this pe- 
culiar "inspection." 

"Why, yes," said Don Caesar, clapping his hand to 
his brow as if a sudden cutting recollection brought a 
cloud over his good fortune, "my poor cousin, while in- 
specting the Grecian temple at Aranjuez, fell into a hole, 
incautiously left open by a bungling workman, and broke 
his blessed neck!" 

'Comment was ch>ecked tiipom this abrupt piece of new« 
by the entrance, at the same time, but by different issues, 
of the queen and Maritana, who had conjured up a toilet 
of surpassing brilliancy ; but perhaps her sudden and un- 
marred happiness had something to do with that 
splendor. 

The greeting was warm to both, and the more sincere 
to the beauty of the Castello-Rotondios. 

The queen looked sharply at her husband, but, debon- 
naire as any gallant gentleman who had called on an- 
other gay and careless g'entleman to congratulate him 
on also finding a wife, he was joining the hands of Mari- 
tana and the new Governor-General of Catalonia. 

"Between ourselves, my dear," said he to the queen, 
"I believe this reformed Count of Garofa is an irredeem- 
able profligate, but I do this to get him away from our 
capital of temptations, and his charming wife is a pro- 
tegee of your own, to whom;, for your sake, I ought not 
to refuse anything!" 

The queen smiled on Maritana, and, to this day, until 
we reveal it, no one suspected that the qtieen's great 
amity for the Garofas sprang from her trying to make the 
countess her cat's-paw. 

"But never mind that little insignificant gypsy," went 
on the king, "let us haste back to the summer palace, 
j^rhere we will pass the Festival of the Trinity together 



236 Laughter Succeeds Sorrow. 

like old lovers, for I wish to consult you on the vacancy 
to be filled, left by that poor Santarem, who really was 
useless as a statesman, since he would go poking his nose 
into the dust of ages over classic busts and torsos !" 

Lazarillo accompanied them. When he outgrew be- 
ing a page, he returned to his first love, that is, the care 
of arms. Curator of the arsenal, he became keeper of the 
royal armory, and for diversion not only defended his 
charge so well during a landing of the Corsairs that they 
fled to their ships, but, mustering all available fighting 
men, embarked in an improvised fleet and pursued them. 
Coming up with them, off Majorca, he drove some gal- 
leys ashore and sank almost all the rest. 

For this exploit he was knighted. 

In a local history, still in MS. in the city archives, a 
note sitates : "The leaden statue in the Fish Market is 
erected to the memory of Don Juan Lazarillo, Knight of 
the Order of St. Jago, captain of the coast guard, and 
was paid for by the ransom money of certain Turks 
•(Algerines, in fact), captured by this valorous soldier in 
the victory off Cape Formentor. Don Juan v/as the in- 
ventor of that humane plan by which, one cartridge being 
blank in the guns of a firing party of soldiers used at an 
execution, each can cherish the illusion that another hand 
than his fired the fatal shot." 

He had the pleasure of teaching the son and heir ol 
his beloved niaster the manual of arms, with a "firelock," 
which, by his improvement, had superseded the arque- 
bus of his boyhood. 

The Count and Countess of Garofa, reigning like 
prince and princess in the remote couintry, had no quarrel 
with happiness. 

But one day the lady 'said to her mate, whose justice 
'{ !), economy ( ! !) and devotion to his fireside (!!!) had 
eedeared him to his subjects: 



Laughter Succeeds Sorrow. 237 

"What could have induced you to go so far from Mad- 
rid when the king did generously wipe out your debts, 
Caesar?" 

"Oh, the king has a long airm, saith the proverb, and 
it was out of his reach I wished to be. He would guess 
by my happiness what a treasure was escaping him in 
you!" 

tut END. 



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wife and home. 

JUNGLE TALES OF TARZAN 

Records the many wonderful exploits by which Tarzan 
proves his right to ape kingship. 

A PRINCESS OF MARS 

Forty-three million miles from the earth — a succession 
of the weirdest and most astounding adventures in fiction. 
John Carter, American, finds himself on the planet Mars, 
battling for a beautiful woman, with the Green Men of 
Mars, terrible creatures fifteen feet high, mounted on 
horses like dragons. 

THE GODS OF MARS 

Continuing John Carter' s adventures on the Planet Mars, 
in which he does battle against the ferocious "plant men," 
creatures whose mighty tails swished their victims to ins,tant 
death, and defies Issus, the terrible Goddess of Death, 
whom all Mars worships and reveres. 

THE WARLORD OF MARS 

Old acquaintances, made in the two other stories, reap- 
pear. Tars Tarkas, Tardos Mors and others. There is a 
happy ending to the story in the union of the Warlord, 
the title conferred upon John Carter, with Dejah Thoris. 

THUVIA, MAID OF MARS 

The fourth volume of the series. The story centers 
around the adventures of Caithoris, the son of John Car- 
ter and Thuvia, daughter of a Martian Emperor. 



GROSSET & DUNLAP, Publishers, NEW YORK 



FLORENCE L. BARCLAY'S 

NOVELS 



May be had wticrBver books ara sold. Ask for Grcssst ADunlac's list. 



THE WHITE LADIES OF WORCESTER 

A novel of the 12th Century. The heroine, believing she 
had lost her lover, enters a convent. He returns, and in- 
teresting developments iollow. » 

THE UPAS T REE 

A love story of rare charm. It deal* with a successful 
author and his wife. 

THROUGH THE POSTERN GATE 

The story of a seven day coi^rtship, in which the dis- 
crepancy in zgts vanished into insigniiicance before the 
convincing dcnaonstration of abiaiugf love. 

T HE ROSA RY 

The story of a young artist who is. reputed to love beauty 
above all else in the world, but who, ivhen blinded through 
an accident, gains life's greatest happiness. A rare story 
of the great passion of two real people supeibly capable of 
love, its sacrifices and its exceeding reward, 

THE MISTRESS OF SHENSTONE 

The lovely young Lady Ingleby, recently wi^ovpd by tho 
death of a husband who never understood her, meets a fine, 
clean young chap who is ignorant of her title ana they fall 
deeply in iove with each other. When he learns hk?r real 
identity a situation of singular power is developed. 

THE BROKEN HALO 

The story of a young man whos® religious beli^^ vis 
shattered in childhood and restored to him bythe^tt•{« 
white lady, many years older than hunself , to whom he i* 
passionately devoted. 

THE FOLLOWING OF THE STAR 

The story of a young missionary, who, about to start fofj 
Africa, marries wealthy Diana Rivers, in order to help her 
fulfill the conditions of her uncle's will, and how they finally 
come to love each other and are reunited after experiences 
that soften and purify. 

Grosset & DuNLAP, Publishers, New York 



ZANE GREY'S NOVELS 

May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset & Dunlap's list. 



THE MAN OF THE FOREST 

THE DESERT OF WHEAT' 
. ,1 

THE U. P. TRAIL 

WILDFIRE 

THE BORDER LEGION* 
— — — — .1 

THE RAINBOW TRAIL 

THE HERITAGE OF THE DESERT 

RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE 

THE LIGHT OF WESTERN STARS 

THE LAST OF THE PLAINSMEN 

THE LONE STAR RANGER 

DESERT GOLD 

BETTY ZANE 

■•*•••[» '«■' 

LAST OF THE GREAT SCOUTS 

The life story of "Buffalo Bill" by his sister Helen Cody 
Wetmore, with Foreword and conclusion by Zane Grey. 

ZANE GREY'S BOOKS FOR BOYS 

KEN WARD IN THE JUNGLE ^ 
THE YOUNG LION HUNTER 
THE YOUNG FORESTER 
THE YOUNG PITCHER 
THE SHORT STOP 



THE 


RED-HEADED OUTFIELD 


AND OTHER 


BASEBALL STORIES 


Grosset 


& DuNLAP, Publishers 


, New York 









KATHLEEN NORRIS' STORIES 

Hay be hsd whsrsvar books are sold. Ask for Grcssst & Durlap's list ^ 

SISTERS. Frontispiece by Frank Street. 

The California Redwoods furnish the background for thisf 
beautiful story of sisterly devotion and sacrifice. 

POOR. DEAR. MARGARET KIRBY. 
Frontispiece by George Gibbs. 

A collection of delightful stories, including "Bridging the 
Yea's" and "The Tide-Marsh." This story is now shown in 
moving pictures. 

JOSSELYN'S WIFE. Frontispiece by C. Allan Gilbert. 

The story of a beautiful woman who fought a bitter fight tor , 
happiness and love. 

MARTIE. THE UNCONQUERED. 
Illustrated by Charles E. Chambers. 
The triumph of a dauntless spirit over adverse conditions. 

THE HEART OF RACHAEL. 



Frontispiece by Charles E. Chambers. 

An niteresting story o£ divorce and the problems tliat Come 
with a second marriage. 

THE STORY OF JULIA PAGE. 

Frontispiece by C. Allan Gilbert. 

A sympathetic portrayal of the quest of a normal girl, obscure \ 
' jnd lonely, for the happiness of life. 

SATURDAY'S CHILD. Frontispiece by F. Graham Cootes. { 

Can a girl, born in rather sordid conditions, lift herself through 
' iheer determination to the better things for which her soul 
hungered ? 

MOTHER. Illustrated by F. C. Yohn. 

A story of the big mother heart that beats in the background 
of every girl's life, and some dreams which came true. 

Ask for Complete free list of G. & D. Popular Copyrighted Fiction \ 



Grosset k. DuNLAP, Publishers, New York; 



BOOTH TARKINGTON'S 
NOVELS 

May be had wherever books are sold. Ask .for Grosset & Dunlap's list. 

£::VENTEEN. Illustrated by Arthur WUUam Brown. 

No one but the creator of Penrod could have portrayed 
the immortal younc; people of this story. Its humor is irre- 
sistible and reminiscent of the time when the reader was 
Seventeen. 

■ PENROD. Illustrated by Gordon Grant. 

This is a picture of a boy's heart, full of the lovable, hu- 
morous, tragic things which are locked secrets to most older 
folks. It is a finished, exquisite work. 

PENROD AND SAM. Illustrated by Worth Brehm. 

Like " Penrod " and " Seventeen," this book contains 
some remarkable phases of real boyhood and some of the best 
Bturies of juvenile prankishness that have ever been written. 

THE TURMOIL. lUustrated by C. E. Chambers. 

Bibbs Sheridan is a dreamy, imaginative youth, who re- 
%'olts against his father's plans for him to be a servitor of 
h)<x, business. The love of a fine girl turns Bibb's life from 
failure to success. 

THE GENTLEMAN FROM INDIANA. Frontispiece. 

A story of love and politics, — more especially a picture of 
a country editor's life in Indiana, but the charm of the book 
ilos in the love interest. 

THE FLIRT. Illustrated by Clarence F. Underwood. 

The " Flirt," the younger of two sisters, breaks one girl's 
engagement, drives one man to suicide, causes the murder 
c: another, leads another to lose his fortune, and in the end 
iTiarries a stupid and unpromising suitor, leaving the really 
worthy one to marry her sister. 

^'.:Ji for Complete free list of G. & D. Popular Copyrighted Fiction 

Grosset & Dunlap, Publishers, New York 



ELFANQRH. PORTERS NOVELS 

Way ba had whsrever books are sold. Ask for Grossst & Dunlap's list. '. 

JUST DAVID 

The tale of a loveable boy and the place he comes to 
fill in the hearts of the gnaff farmer folk to whose care he 
IS left. 

THE ROAD TO UNDERSTANDING 

A compelling romance of love and marriage. 

OH, MONEY! MONEY! 

Stanley Fu'ton, a wealthy bachelor, to test the disposi- 
tions of his relatives, sends them each a check for $100,- 
000, and then as plain John Smith comes among them to 
watch the result of his experiment. 

SIX STAR RANCH 

A wholesome story of a club of six girls and their sum- 
mer on Six Star Ranch. 

DAWN 

The story of a blind boy whose courage leads him 
through the gulf of despair into a final victory gained by 
dedicating his life to the service of blind soldiers. 

ACROSS THE YEARS 

Short stories of our own kind and of our own people. 
Contains some of the best writing Mrs. Porter has done. 

THE TANGLED THREADS 

In these stories we find the concentrated charm and 
tenderness of all her other books. 

THE TIE THAT BINDS 

Intensely human stories told with Mrs. Porter's won- 
derful talent for warm and vivid character drawing. 

Grosset & DuMLAP, Publishers, New York 



JA CK L O NDON^S NO V ELS 

May b3 hzd wherever books are sold. Ask for Grossst & Dunlap's list 



JOHN BARLEYCORN. Illustrated by H. T. Dunn. 

This remarkable book is a record of the author's own amazing 
experiences. Tins big, brawny world rover, who has been ac- 
quainted with alcohol trom boyhood, comes out boldly against John 
Barleycorn. It is a string of exciting adventures, yet it forcefully 
conveys an unforgetable idea and makes a typical Jack London book. 

THE VALLEY OF THE INI DON . Frontispiece by George Harper. 

The story opens in the city slums where Billy Roberts, teamster 
and ex-prize fighter, and Saxon Brown, laundry worker, meet and 
love and many. They tramp from one end of Cahfornia to the 
©ther, and in the Valley of the Moon find the farm paradise that is 
to be their salvation. 

BURNING DA\T.IGHT. Four illustrations. 

The story ot an adventurer who went to Alaska and laid th« 
foundations of his fortune before the gold hunters arrived. Bringing 
his fortunes to the States he is cheated out of it by a crowd of money 
kings, and recovers it only at the muzzle of his gun. He then starts 
out as a merciless exploiter on his own account. Finally he takes to 
drinking and becomes a picture of degeneration. About this tim« 
he falls in love with his stenographer and wins her heart but not 
her hand and then — but read the story! 

A SON OF THE SL^ . Illustrated by A. O. Fischer and C.W. Ashley. 

Da\-id Grief was once a light-haired, blue-eyed youth who came 
from England to the South Seas in scarcli of adventure. Tanned 
like a native and as litlie as a tiger, he became a real son of the sun. 
The life appealed to him and he remained and became very wealthy. 

THE CALL OF THE WILD. Illustrations by Philip R. Goodwin and 

Charles Livingston Bull. Decorations by Charles E. Hooper. 

A book ot dog adventures as exciting as any man's exploits 

could be. Here is excitement to stir the blood and here is pictur- 

esque color to transport the reader to primitive scenes. 

THE SEA WOLF. Illustrated by W. J. Aylward. 

Told by a man whom Fate suddenly swing-s from his fastidious 
life into the power of the brutal captain of a sealing schooner. A 
novel of adventure warmed by a beautiful love episode that every 
reader will hail with deiiglit. 

WHITE FANG. Illustrated by Charles Livingston Bull. 

"White Fang" is part dog, part wolf and all brute, living in the 
frozen north ; he gradually comes under the spell of man's com- 
panionship, and surrenders all at the last in a fight with a bull dog. 
Thereafter he is man's loving slave. 

Grosset & DuNLAP, Publishers, New York. 

L - -" "■ " "" ■■■■■■ ■■ 








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HECKMAN 

BINDERY INC. 



A. MAR 92 




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